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The Napoleon of the Pacific 




Kamehameha the Great 



The Napoleon of the 

Pacific 

Kamehameha the Great 



By 
HERBERT H. GOWEN, D.D., F. R. G. S. 

Professor of Oriental Languages and Literature 
Univermy of Washington 

Author of "The Paradise of the Pacific," "Hawaiian 
Idylls of I^ove and Death" etc. 




New York Chicago 

Fleming H. Revell Company 

London and Edinburgh 



Copyright, 1919, by 
FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 



.V3C b 



OCT 28i9l9 



New York : 1 58 Fifth Avenue 
Chicago": 17 North Wabash Ave. 
London : 21 Paternoster Square 
Edinburgh : 75 Princes Street 



©CI. A5 3 5. 4 97 



To 

EDMOND STEPHEN MEANT 

friend and colleague 



Foreword 

JUST a century ago, — on May 8, 1819, — the 
greatest child of the Pacific, " from chaos until 
now/' Kamehameha the First of Hawaii passed 
away, leaving to his children a legacy which they 
were unable to retain. The United States, which 
have providentially become the inheritors of his 
realm, are also made thereby the guardians of 
Kamehaineha's fame. It is in the hope that Amer- 
icans will find some interest in the story of one who 
surely deserves his title of " the Great " that this 
book has been written. The author has drawn 
freely upon all the materials available. Particular 
use has been made of Fornander's " Polynesian 
Kace," Alexander's " History of the Hawaiian 
People," King Kalakaua's " Legends and Myths of 
Hawaii," and some of the older histories such as 
those of Jarves and Dibble. The writings of the 
old missionaries, such as Ellis and Bingham, have 
also been of great service, and, of course, also the 
Voyages of the great navigators, such as Cook and 
Vancouver. I wish to acknowledge very gratefully 
the help which has been thus derived and without 
which the memoir could not have been written. 

Herbert H. Gowen. 



Contents 



I. Introduction ..... 

II. The Birth and Boyhood of Kamehameha 

III. Kamehameha's First Taste of War 

IV. Preparing for the Struggle . 

V. The Battle of the Sand-Hills 

VI. The Prophecy of Keaulumoku 

VII. The Coming of the White Man 

VIII. The Second Visit of Cook . . . 

IX. The Death of Captain Cook . 

X. The Patrimony of Kamehameha 

XI. Kahekili Subjugates Oahu 

XII. The Brief Reign and Tragic Death of Kiwalao 

XIII. "The Bitter War" .... 

XIV. Kamehameha Marries Kaahumanu . 

XV. Renewed War With Maui 

XVI. The Return of the White Man 

XVII. The Battle of the Iao Valley 

XVIII. Kamehameha Sends Ambassadors 

XIX. The Fire-Goddess Declares for Kamehameha 

XX. The Building of the Great Heiau . 

XXI. Kahekili Forgets His Promise 

XXII. The Death of Keoua .... 

XXIII. Kamehameha King of Hawaii 

XXIV. The Visits of Vancouver . . . 

XXV. Civil War in Oahu .... 

J 



9 
16 

24 

34 

4 1 

49 

55 
69 

87 
107 

118 

125 

139 

H7 

154 

159 
171 

176 

183 

190 

198 

202 

210 

214 

228 



8 



CONTENTS 



XXVI. The Last Struggle in Oahu . . . 240 

XXVII. Kamehameha Establishes His Rule . .251 

XXVIII. Social Organization Under the Monarchy . 257 

XXIX. Sojourn in Hawaii from 1796 to 1802 . . 268 

XXX. Kamehameha Stays at Lahaina . . . 274 

XXXI. Return to Oahu . . . . . 279 

XXXII. The Cession of Kauai ..... 284 

XXXIII. Development of Trade and Its Effects . 289 

XXXIV. Kamehameha's Last Tour . ... 296 

XXXV. Foreign Complications . . . .300 

XXXVI. The Death of Kamehameha . . . ^306 
Glossary of Hawaiian Terms . • .318 
Index . . . . . . • 3 2 1 



INTRODUCTION 

"Arma virumque cano." 

HAWAII to-day attracts the tourist in 
search of health and pleasure rather than 
the historian on the trail of the past. Yet 
the sunshine of the present hour cannot forbid the 
shadow of the past from crossing its path. Sooner 
or later the visitor to Honolulu finds his way to the 
square between the Iolani Palace and the Aliiolani 
Hale. Such at least were the dulcet syllables by 
which we once described the dwelling place of 
Hawaii's sovereign and the meeting place of her 
Parliament. But times have changed and names 
have changed with them. More prosaic titles fit 
more prosaic times. Yet, prominent in the square, 
just in front of the Legislative Buildings, is a monu- 
ment which no change of time or name can rob of 
interest. For Monarch and Legislature, yes, alas, 
and People too, may pass only to bring into higher 
light the grandeur of him whose statue here keeps 
sentry guard. 

It is the chief who made Hawaii a kingdom, 
giving it such cohesion and stability that as a king- 
dom it endured for just a century. Here stands 
Kamehameha I, " the lonely one " (as his name im- 
plies), as he might have appeared in life in those 

9 



10 THE NAPOLEON OP THE PACIFIC 

heroic days when the chiefs of Hawaii fought like 
" gods of war dispensing fate." 

I remember well the man whom the artist used as 
model and often had occasion, as he rowed me from 
Maui to Lanai, to admire his size and thews. But, 
before the statue, one thinks not of Kaopuiki but of 
Kamehameha. We see him, a man of gigantic 
mould, with furrowed and smileless countenance, as 
of one who spoke not but to command and com- 
manded only to be obeyed. Spear in hand, feather 
helmet on head, and on his shoulders the feather 
cloak which took nine generations of kings to con- 
struct, — we seem to see him, a " Mars armipotent " 
of whom Homer might have sung : 

' * On him the war is bent, the darts are shed, 
And all their falchions wave about his head : 
Repulsed he stands, nor from his stand retires, 
But with repeated shouts his army fires." 

A century and a quarter ago, in the year 1795,^ 
this man effected what, under the circumstances, 
seemed a task of insuperable difficulty, the union 
under one government of the Eight Islands of the 
Hawaiian archipelago. What the difficulties were 
and wherein consisted the greatness of the man who 
overcame them will appear as we proceed. Suffice 
it here to say that of his race there was none like 
him before, there has been none like him since. In 
all that shadowy time, from the dawn of island his- 
tory to the establishment of intercourse with the 
western world, — the time of heroes nine feet high, 
who wielded spears ten yards long, heroes who 
fought with and received aid from gods, like the 



INTRODUCTION 11 

warriors at Troy, — heroes such as Kiha of the 
magic conch, or Liloa or Umi or Lono, — there was 
none who did what Kamehameha did by the patient 
toil and dauntless courage of forty years of strife. 

Moreover, in all the time since, spite of the un- 
exampled advance which has made of the old Hawaii 
a land of telephones and electric lights, of universal 
education and universal suffrage, no Hawaiian has 
arisen with a hundredth part of the manhood pos- 
sessed and used, mainly for good, by this heroic 
savage. 

If the conquests of Kamehameha were inferior to 
those of the conquerors of fame, it was because he 
had not Alexander's or Caesar's scope. At least he 
fought till he had no more worlds to conquer, and 
what he conquered he held till the dynasty expired. 
He is sometimes called the " Napoleon of the Pa- 
cific," and like Napoleon he had unswerving faith in 
his destiny and his power to sway it. 

For though the union of eight small islands into 
one kingdom may appear a small achievement, as 
a matter of fact it was anything but easy. The 
islands had each their traditions of preeminence, 
and their inter-relations were controlled by furious 
jealousies. Intercourse for many generations al- 
most ceased except for war. Even two generations 
ago the natives of the windward and the leeward 
islands could be distinguished by their dialect and 
f even to-day the K's and L's of Oahu are distinguish- 
lable from the T's and R's of Lanai, Able soldiers 
and statesmen before Kamehameha had attempted 
the consolidation of the race, but all alike had 
failed. Even the wise Vancouver tried to dissuade 
Kamehameha from what he believed to be a dis- 



12 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

astrous and Utopian enterprise. But the savage 
followed his stars to fortune and prevailed. 

King Kalakaua, an unbiased witness, inasmuch 
as he inaugurated a new line of rulers, passes 
the following judgment on his illustrious prede- 
cessor : 

" Kamehameha was a man of tremendous phys- 
ical and intellectual strength. In any land and in 
any age he would have been a leader. The impress 
of his mind remains with his crude and vigorous 
laws, and wherever he stepped is seen an imperish- 
able track. He was so strong of limb that ordinary 
men were but children in his grasp, and in council 
the wisest yielded to his judgment. He seems to 
have been born a man and to have had no boyhood. 
He was always sedate and thoughtful, and from his 
earliest years cared for no sport or pastime that was 
not manly. He had a harsh and rugged face, less 
given to smiles than frowns, but strongly marked 
with lines indicative of self-reliance and changeless 
purpose. He was barbarous, unforgiving and 
merciless to his enemies, but just, sagacious and con- 
siderate in dealing with his subjects. He was more 
feared than loved and respected; but his strength 
of arm and force of character well fitted him for the 
supreme chieftaincy of the group, and he accom- 
plished what no one else could have done in his 
day." 

The extract does no more than justice to Ivame- 
hameha's powers of body and mind. Indeed, dis- 
tinguished as he was for bravery in an age of valour, 
it is his intellectual quality which gives him en- 
during place in history. 

We may put him beside Fabius Maximus for his 



INTRODUCTION 13 

invincible patience. " Unus homo cunctando resti- 
tuit rem," was said of Hannibal's great conqueror 
and of the conqueror of Kalanikapule and la haute 
noblesse of all Hawaii it may be said that not less 
by waiting than by fighting did he make a kingdom 
out of chaos. Something of the Hawaiian indiffer- 
ence to time perhaps enabled Kamehameha to take 
defeat so easily and to retire so contentedly, like 
another Cincinnatus, to his patrimonial fields at 
Waipio, but without doubt also he stablished him- 
self in faith, waiting for the fullness of time, — a 
faith the very reverse of common in barbarous 
societies. 

None knew as Kamehameha knew so to bear de- 
feat as to make each repulse a step to completer 
victory. He might well have adopted the words of 
Coligni : " In one respect I may claim superiority 
over Alexander, over Scipio, over Caesar. They 
won great battles, it is true. I have lost four great 
battles ; and yet I shew to the enemy a more formi- 
dable front than ever." 

Moreover, he knew when to strike and then struck 
hard. Like Napoleon, he could hurl his force at a 
given point with celerity and precision, and, once 
he had formed his plan, he suffered no obstacle to 
limit its success. 

Then, once more, Kamehameha had a singular 
genius for discerning the proper instruments for 
his undertakings. Many great men have ruined 
their work, either by assuming too large a share 
personally or by selecting unsuitable instruments. 
In each case the work fails to outlive the worker, 
even if he himself see not the ruin. We say, " Such 
and such a successful ruler had the good fortune to 



14 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

be surrounded by such and such a brilliant galaxy 
of statesmen." The good fortune in reality was in 
the good sense and the keen faculty which chose 
the instruments aright. 

We shall see that the throne of Kamehameha had 
for pillars of support men who might easily have 
become his rivals, and that among all the chiefs of 
his day none was discarded save such as Kaiana 
whose untrustworthiness made assistance more a 
menace than a mainstay. As it was, few kings ever 
had an abler council, more conspicuous for courage 
in battle or for skill in the arts of government than 
he whose service enlisted men like Kalanimoku, 
Kameeiamoku and Xeeaumoku and the English- 
men, Young and Davis. 

Kamehameha, too, lived long enough after he had 
crushed opposition to his rule to show that he un- 
derstood the consolidation no less than the estab- 
lishment of a monarchy. For twenty-five years hefs 
governed Hawaii with steadily increasing skill, 
piloting the new Union through every kind of em- 
broilment with the nationals who sought adventure 
and profit in his realm. 

Like William the Conqueror, he purposed to 
govern justly what he had won cruelly. If he was 
overstern to suppress, he undoubtedly spared the 
country misery which a weaker policy would have 
brought in full flood. 

So, looking at our hero as man rather than 
monarch, we need not deny him the title " Great." 
He could win victories over himself as well as over 
others. Perhaps greater than any triumph over 
rival chiefs was that over his weaker self when he 
broke free from the trammels of the foreigner's fire- 



INTRODUCTION 15 

water and bade his countrymen imitate him and be 
saved. 

But enough has been said in these introductory 
words to suggest that at the foot of the statue of 
Kamehameha we need not muse merely of a perish- 
ing race, as Gibbon mused on the Decline and Fall 
of Eome hard by the Temple of Jupiter. Not 
merely to the antiquarian, searching amid the sad 
ruins of a remnant for the ashes of romance; not 
merely to the historian, seeking here and there in 
ancient archives for iterated illustrations of mean- 
ing in the human story ; not merely to the lover of 
adventure and stirring incidents of warfare ; but to 
the student of man as man, the story of the first 
Kamehameha should possess interest and instruc- 
tion. 

For heroism is of no age and of no race. It com- 
pels the sympathy of all; and if this little sketch 
fail to show in the life^of the Hawaiian monarch 
that touch of nature which makes the whole world 
kin, that quality of manhood which obliterates dis- 
tinction of East and West, assuredly it is not the 
tale but the telling of it which must be blamed. 



n 

THE BIRTH AND BOYHOOD OF KAMEHAMEHA 

"Wherefore Merlin took the child, 
And gave him to Sir Anton, an old knight 
And ancient friend of Vther; and his wife 
Nurs'd the young prince, and rear'd him with her own; 
And no man knew. 9 ' 

THE normal state of Hawaii a century and a 
half ago was that of war, so it can hardly 
be regarded as of special omen that at the 
time of Kamehameha's birth great preparations 
were proceeding for a campaign against the island 
of Maui. Yet the circumstance was appropriate, as 
was also the weather ; for, strange as it may seem 
with our conception of Hawaii as a Paradise 
" where never breeze blows roughly," on the Novem- 
ber night when Kamehameha first drew breath, not 
only was the air filled with the shouts of men pre- 
paring for battle but louder and shriller still rose 
the voice of a storm which made the night forever 
famous in history and presaged to those skilled in 
weather lore the advent to this world of a hero 
greater than his fellows. 

It was at Halawa, near Kohala, in the extreme 

north of the island of Hawaii, the largest island of 

the group, that on this stormy night in the month 

s Ikuiwa, or November, somewhere between a. d. 

16 



BIETH AND BOYHOOD OF KAMEHAMEHA 17 

1736 and 1740, probably nearer the former than the 
latter date, that the cry of a new-born babe obtruded 
itself upon this strange world filled with the shouts 
of armed men and the sound of thunder and the 
wrestling winds. 

Alapainui, king of Hawaii, was staying at Kohala 
at the time, engaged in preparing his canoes and 
superintending the massing of troops for an attack 
on the adjacent isle of Maui. With him were two 
young princes, Keoua^ the accepted father of Kame- 
hameha, and Kalaniopuu^^who afterwards became 
Moi, or king, instead of Alapainui. "Accepted 
father," we say ; for, though Keoua, or to give him 
his full name, Kalanikupuakeoua, was generally 
taken to be the father of the newly born prince, by 
his wife, the high-born princess Kekuiapuiwa II, 
there are circumstances which imply a different 
parentage. Indeed, the mystery which surrounded 
the birth of Arthur, when, in the dismal night, " a 
night in which the bounds of heaven and earth were 
lost," the naked babe came riding down the flaming- 
waves and was borne to Merlin's feet, surrounded 
also the arrival of the Hawaiian prince upon this 
mortal stage. As men disputed, saying, " Here is 
Uther's heir," with others crying : 

1 ' Away with him ! 
No king of ours ! A son of Gorlois he, 
Or else the child of Anton, and no king, 
Or else base-born ! " 

so it was with Kamehameha. All through life, 
while commonly reputed to be the child of Keoua, 
there were those who pointed to more distinguished 
lineage and to a father who was no other than the 



18 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

famous king of Maui, Kahekili, in after years the 
chiefest obstacle to that winning of the monarchy 
upon which Kamehameha had set his heart. Kahe- 
kili was one of like mould with himself, quick in- 
deed to recognize the prowess of the younger man 
and to foresee his future fame, but holding out 
grimly and successfully until death. 

But, it will be asked, what is the evidence for this 
extraordinary story, a story which implies that 
father and son were rivals for long years together, 
spite of the knowledge, on the father's side at least, 
of the relationship? 

Historically, perhaps, the evidence is no way con- 
clusive, but such as it is it may be presented as 
follows. 

First, no ordinary reader of Hawaiian history 
can fail to note the remarkable similarity in the 
characters of Kahekili and the subject of our sketch, 
and the more than ordinary interest, sometimes 
amounting to the grimmest pleasure, with which the 
former watched Kamehameha's exploits. 

Secondly, that same night in which Kamehameha 
was born he was stolen away from his mother's side 
v- by a Kohala chief named Naeole. There was bitter 
wailing in the house of Keoua, and all night long 
search was made for the kidnappers and the infant. 
For some time the search was vain but, when at last 
Naeole was found in possession of the child, instead 
of being punished with death, the usual and legal 
penalty for such a crime, he gave some mysterious 
explanation which left him the Jcaiiu, or nurse, of 
the prince until he was five years old. Thus, from 
the very beginning, Keoua forfeited claim to the 
education of his reputed son, and there is reason to 



BIRTH AND BOYHOOD OP KAMEHAMEH A 19 

believe that in the whole transaction Naeole was 
acting as the agent of Kahekili. 

Thirdly, more cogent perhaps is the fact that no 
sooner did the news of Kamehameha's birth reach 
the conrt of the king of Maui than that chief sent 
Kaineeiamoku and Kanianawa, his two half- v 
brothers, the twin sons of his father Kekaulike, to 
Hawaii with orders to act as Kamehameha's guard- 
ians, — a step inexplicable unless dictated by pa- * 
rental interest. The service rendered by the two 
famous ambassadors for many subsequent years, in 
fact till Kamehameha had completed the union of the 
islands, is a remarkable testimony to the personal 
concern they felt with regard to him. For him they 
watched the course of events, for him they plotted, 
for him they fought. They roused him from apathy, 
encouraged him in defeat, followed him in victory, 
counselled him in difficulty, and afforded a lifelong 
and magnificent example of heroic constancy and 
unswerving faith. 

For these reasons, and perhaps most of all for the 
general concurrence on the point of the Hawaiian 
traditions, it is not fanciful to hold that Kame- 
hameha was the son of Kahekili rather than of 
Keoua. It may be urged that Vancouver speaks of 
Kahekili in 1793 as a man about sixty years old, u- - 
which would make him only three or four years 
older than his son. But the instances are numerous 
in which foreigners failed completely to estimate 
aright the age of natives, and we know from other 
sources that, at the time to which Vancouver re- 
ferred, Kahekili was at least eighty and so twenty- 
three or four at the date of Kamehameha's birth. 
Let us remember too that we are dealing with a 



20 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

society which used two words for " father," one de- 
noting the real parent, the other the legal parent or 
husband of the mother. 

In any case, with a claim to two fathers, Kame- 
hameha had an unusual supply of " nurses," and 
these evidently regarded themselves as charged 
with duties of special responsibility. 

For Rye years the child remained in the house of 
his kidnapper, Naeole. At the expiration of this 
term he was transferred to the court of Alapainui, 
there to be educated as befitted a prince of the high- 
est rank. The change was probably coincident with 
the rites attendant upon a boy's promotion from the 
hale noa to the hale mua, that is, when he was sepa- 
rated from the women, forbidden any longer to eat 
with them, and allowed for the future to eat Jcapu 
food, such as bananas, pork and squid. It was an 
important epoch in a boy's life. A hog was baked 
for the gods, its head cut off and laid upon the altar 
of Lono, and one ear deposited in the calabash sus- 
pended around Lono's neck. After this bananas and 
cocoanuts were offered, and the child's father pro- 
nounced a long invocation to the gods, partaking at 
the same time of a little of the consecrated food. 
Then the service concluded and a general feast was 
held on the sacrifice. From this time onwards the 
boy lived his life among the men. 

Though we are told that Kamehameha had no 
boyhood, we are sure from his subsequent career 
and his skill in all manly exercises that he loved the 
sports which constituted the training of an Hawai- 
ian chief. We are, in fact, taken back to the at- 
mosphere of the old Greek life when the budding 
warriors gathered 



BIRTH AND BOYHOOD OF KAMEHAMEHA 21 



a 



to hurl the distant dart, 
The quoit to toss, th' ponderous mace to wield, 
To urge the race, to wrestle on the field. ' ' 

Alapainui assigned him for an instructor the fa- 
mous warrior Kekuhaupio^-a chief who accom- 
panied his pupil through many moving adventures. 
And it was for adventures, especially those of war, 
that Kamehameha was trained. 

The games of his boyhood were not games such as 
konane, or draughts, only fit for old men past the 
use of war ; or puhenehene, when men had only to 
sit in a circle and guess the whereabouts of a bit of 
stone hidden under a mat ; rather were they games 
which gave earnest of the danger and excitement of 
the battle-field. 

There were wrestling and foot-races, popular to 
youth in every land. There was mokumoku, or box- 
ing, a sport governed by fixed rules and never fail- 
ing to attract crowds of ardent partisans, though 
the combatants were often left dead upon the field. 
More characteristic of Hawaii was the sport called 
maiica, in which a highly polished disk of stone or 
lava was bowled along a track sometimes half a mile 
in length. There was also the holud, a game in 
which a narrow sledge, fourteen or fifteen feet long, 
was used in sliding down a steep, smooth hillside. 
He who by strength or skill in maintaining his equi- 
librium travelled the furthest was declared the vic- 
tor. It was deemed a sport for the gods and one of 
the thrilling legends of Hawaii tells of the contest 
between Kahavali, the chief of Puna, and Pele, the 
volcano goddess, — a contest ending in a fearful 
lava-flow which devastated the island of Hawaii. 



22 THE NAPOLEON OP THE PACIFIC 

Still another game was pahe. The pahe was a 
blunt kind of dart, from one to five feet long, made 
of heavy wood, which was hurled along a level floor 
some sixty yards long and between a certain num- 
ber of upright pegs three or four inches apart. It 
was a laborious game under the hot sun of Hawaii ; 
yet the boy Kamehameha might have been seen at 
the sport hour after hour, while the yells of the ex- 
cited multitude and the beating of drums roused the 
excitement of the contestants to the highest pitch. 

But the prince of all sports was the surf -swim- 
ming. It has always possessed a fascination for the 
natives of Polynesia, in spite of the danger from the 
sharks. Almost from the cradle the children are 
amphibious and early learn the use of the papa he 
nalu, or " wave-sliding board." This is generally a 
piece of plank, almost flat, five or six feet long and a 
foot wide, stained quite black, oiled after use and 
preserved with the greatest care. With this as the 
sole equipment, men, women and children go forth 
to ride the billows. The higher the sea, the better 
they like it. Swimming out from the shore, diving 
under the billows as they go, they watch the ap- 
proach of the largest wave. Then, poising them- 
selves on the topmost edge, paddling with hands 
and feet, they ride shorewards on the foaming crest, 
till just as the wave breaks on the rocks with the 
noise of thunder they slip from their board and dive 
back beneath the water. The greatest address was 
necessary to maintain a position on the wave, yet so 
expert were the swimmers that they could change 
their position as they rode and even stand upright 
on the surf -board, as on the very manes of the horses 
of the sea. Kamehameha was a great adept and 



BIBTH AND BOYHOOD OF KAMEHAMEHA 23 

loved surf -swimming almost next to war. Even in 
his old age he maintained a reputation for skill in 
this daring and exhilarating exercise. 

Above all sports, however, Kamehameha loved 
the hard training of a man of war. He could have 
had no better military instructor than Kekuhaupio, 
one of the foremost warriors of the day. Under this 
teacher the young prince became expert not only in 
hurling spears at the smallest mark but, what was 
no less important, also in catching the darts which 
were hurled at him. So dexterous was he in this, 
that on one occasion Vancouver saw as many as 
height spears thrown at the king at once. Three of 
these he caught, three more he warded off, and the 
remainder he escaped by quick motions of his body. 
In connection with the dedication of a temple it was 
customary in the evening for the king to go fishing, 
taking the idol with him, and, on his return, for a 
man to hurl a spear at him from the shore. Gener- 
ally, of course, this was a sham; but in Kame- 
hameha's case nothing but the reality was deemed 
satisfactory. The king, moreover, never failed to 
catch the spear. 

With exercises such as these both pupil and peda- 
gogue were fully occupied, and if pupil rarely had 
more competent a teacher, teacher certainly never 
had more willing and precocious a scholar. 



%s 



ra 

KAMEHAMEHA'S FIRST TASTE OF WAR 

" Continuo nova lux oculis effulsit, et arma 
Horrendum sonuere: tremunt in vertice cristae 
Sanguineae, clypeoque micantia fulgura mittit." 

IT was unnecessary for Kamehameha to play at 
war very long, for the real thing, with all its 
horror, soon appeared, with abundant prospect 
of long continuance, when the young chief attained 
his manhood. If we must make here a little excur- 
sion into somewhat tedious details of Hawaiian his- 
tory, let it be remembered in extenuation that it is 
necessary to establish the proper starting point for 
our hero's career. 

We have seen that, at the time of Kamehameha's 
birth, Alapainui was engaged in an expedition 
against Maui. He took with him Keoua, the legal 
father of Kamehameha. But this time no fighting 
took place in Maui, for they found the old king 
Kekaulike, father of Kahekili, dead, and after see- 
ing the dead king's bones safely concealed, accord- 
ing to custom, in the Iao Valley, and witnessing the 
proclamation of his own nephew, Kamehamehanui, 
as king of Maui, Alapainui made peace, joined his 
forces to those of Maui and set off for the relief of 
Molokai, then holding out, as best it could, against 
the king of Oahu. 

Here, at least, was no lack of fighting, and a 
memorable and bloody battle took place near Ka- 

24 



KAMEHAMEHA'S FIRST TASTE OF WAR 25 

wela. The Oaliu troops, under their king, Kapiio- 
hokolani, made a fierce and obstinate resistance to 
the Hawaiian army, but in the end were routed 
with tremendous slaughter. The extent of the car- 
nage may still be estimated when the strong north 
wind sweeps over the famous battle-field, and, lift- 
ing up the mantle of sand, discloses bones bleached 
by a hundred and fifty years' alternate burial and 
exposure. 

Alapainui did not stay to annex Molokai, but, 
leaving the local chiefs in possession of their rights, 
sailed north to achieve if possible the conquest of 
Oahu. Here, however, his good fortune failed him. 
The chiefs of Oahu, now fighting for their native 
soil, held out against the invader till the arrival of a 
powerful ally in the person of Peleioholani, king of 
Kauai, an island still further to the north. Face to 
face with this adversary, Alapainui was glad to 
avail himself of the good offices of his two attendant 
chiefs, Kalaniopuu and Keoua, to arrange a meet- 
ing with Peleioholani. At this meeting, alone and 
unarmed, the two kings concluded a peace recogniz- 
ing each other's rights and spheres of influence. 
Soon after, Alapainui, baffled in his schemes, re- 
turned with his fleet to Hawaii. 

The very next year, however, the two sovereigns 
met again, this time in full clash of arms. Peleio- 
holani was the aggressor, for he had interfered in 
the affairs of Maui by inciting Kauhi to rebel 
against his half-brother, Kamehamehanui. Alapai- 
nui at once went to the assistance of his nephew and 
desperate fighting raged for two days north of La- 
haina. Then at last Kauhi was defeated and, it is 
said, drowned by order of the conqueror. The two 



26 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

kings met on the battle-field and agreed to draw off 
their respective forces to Kauai and Hawaii, leav- 
ing Kamehamehanui in his rather insecure position 
as king of Maui. Molokai was left to'Oahu and 
Alapainui returned to his home with no new posses- 
sion added to his dominions as the fruit of victory. 

From this there was comparative peace for twelve 
or fourteen years, in fact till 1752, but the domestic 
history of Hawaii during this period is not without 
its bearings on the story of Kamehameha. 

In the above-mentioned wars of Alapainui the 
young chief had fleshed his maiden sword, and it 
was with reluctance that he returned to cultivate 
the arts of peace. Soon after his return, however, 
/his father, Keoua, died. The cause of death is 
wrapped in mystery. Some say Alapainui had a 
hand in it, by the use of poison or by anaana (pray- 
ing to death ) , which in many cases was much the 
same. The justice of the charge must remain unde- 
termined. What is certain, however, is that the 
" nurses " of Kamehameha believed, or pretended to 
believe, that the life of their charge was in danger ; 
so they persuaded Kalaniopuu to attempt a second 
abduction. Kalaniopuu consented, sent a war-canoe 
round to an appointed place, and, accompanied by 
a few trusted followers, went himself by land to 
Piopio, to the house of the deceased Keoua. He 
found the customary wailing for the dead proceed- 
ing and, taking advantage of the distraction of the 
mourners, endeavoured to remove the young Kame- 
hameha. The purpose, however, was perceived and 
frustrated, and it turned out well for him that he 
had sent the war-canoe round to meet him, for the 
assembled chiefs regarded his attempt as an act of 



KAMEHAMEHA'S FIEST TASTE OF WAR 27 

open rebellion and would undoubtedly have slain 
him had he fallen into their hands. 

Plunged into this war, it was easier for Kalani- 
opuu to go through than to go back. Forces were 
gathered on both sides and a civil war commenced 
which did not cease till 1754, when Alapainui left 
his kingdom and his troubles to his son, Keaweo- 
pala. Under these circumstances, the intermission 
was but brief, and as soon as the rites over the 
bones of Alapainui were completed the flame burst 
out again and blazed most furiously. Fuel was sup- 
plied by a chief who afterwards became one of 
Kamehameha's most conspicuous supporters and 
counsellors, Keeaumoku, surnamed u The crab of 
the evening," a man who may with justice be called 
the " Warwick " or " Kingmaker " of Hawaii. The 
division of lands which followed on the death of a 
high chief was always a source of discord and on 
this occasion Keeaumoku was so dissatisfied with 
his share that he rose in oj)en rebellion against Kea- 
weopala. He was defeated, but soon after, joining 
his forces with those of Kalaniopuu, he entered the 
district of Kona and gave battle to the royal 
troops. The fight lasted several days, and indeed 
seemed likely only to end with the extinction of one 
or other of the opposing parties. As when Israel 
fought with Amalek Moses kept his arms extended 
in prayer until the defeat of the foe was assured, so 
in this battle the conflict was prolonged by the 
prayers of Kaakau, the priest of Keaweopala. Then 
by the advice of Kalaniopuu's priest, Kaakau was 
singled out and slain and from the moment of his 
fall victory inclined to the side of the rebels. Kea- 
weopala was slain and Keeaumoku made his debut 



is* 



28 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

as Kingmaker by proclaiming on the field of battle 
Kalaniopuu as the sovereign of the island of Ha- 
waii. 

The conqueror was of the ancient line of Pili and 
was of a warlike and restless disposition, but for a 
while he contented himself with the consolidation of 
his power, reorganizing the government, promoting 
agriculture, building canoes and collecting arms in 
readiness for wars which were still to come. 

Then, perhaps as much to give employment to 
rue ardent spirits around him as to please himself, 
he began to plan in earnest the conquest of the east- 
ern half of Maui. It was about 1759 that he sailed 
with a great fleet, landed in the Hana district and 
took possession of the country commanded by the 
famous fortress of Kauwiki. " Lofty Kauwiki," as 
the place is called in the Chant of Kualii, is a 
prominent hill overlooking the harbour of Hana and 
is memorable in legend as the residence of Hinaia- 
kamalama, the mother of Maui. Here, at the base 
of the great extinct volcano of Haleakala, " House 
of the Sun," Kalaniopuu found a natural fortress 
which, amid many fluctuations of fortune, he was 
able to hold for many years. It was taken at last by 
Kahekili, brother of Kamehamehanui, and, as we 
have assumed, father of Kamehameha, about 1782, 
by cutting off the water supply. The garrison, after 
desperate efforts to break through the lines of the 
besiegers, finally capitulated. In spite of this sub- 
mission, they were slain and their bodies baked in 
file great oven, or imu loa, as sacrifices to the gods. 

But we are anticipating. The war of Kapalipilo, 
as the conquest of Hana by the Hawaiian army un- 
der Kalaniopuu was called, continued till 1765, 



KAMEHAMEHA'S FIEST TASTE OF WAE 29 

when Kamehamehanui, king of Maui, died suddenly 
at Wailuku. His bones were disposed of in the 
usual manner, the customary mourning was ob- 
served, and Kahekili reigned in his stead, establish- 
ing his court on the other side of the island at La- 
haina. 

Meanwhile, Keeaumoku, " the evening crab," had 
wearied of allegiance to Kalaniopuu, had rebelled 
and experienced defeat. Escaping from Hawaii, he 
arrived at Lahaina with a handsomely equipped 
war-canoe, just as Kahekili was holding his court. 
The coming of the stranger made quite a sensation 
in the court, for no more than the slightest glance 
was needed to recognize an alii. Tall and stately, 
t^about thirty years old, with hair and beard cropped 
close, his head bound round with yellow kapa, his 
feather mantle on his ample shoulders, malo round 
his loins, and palaoa, or ivory emblem of chiefhood, 
around his neck, his presence could scarcely fail to 
impress. 

Let us note this man well, for to him in after 
years Kamehameha owed not only his crown but 
also the best-loved of all his wives, the beautiful and 
romantic Kaahumanu. 

At the court of Kahekili, where the exiled chief 
after this defeat was now made welcome, lived the 
comely Namahana, widow of the late king Kame- 
hamehanui. To her, in defiance of the royal eti- 
quette and of the dictates of prudence, the courtly 
stranger paid his addresses. So well did he woo the 
illustrious widow that ere long, and without con- 
sulting the king, Namahana gave Keeaumoku her 
hand and heart. 

Now in far more civilized communities than Ha- 



30 THE NAPOLEON OP THE PACIFIC 

waii such an act would have been construed as a 
step towards usurpation. We have a precedent in 
the Old Testament where Adonijah, the son of 
David, ventured to ask for Abishag, the Shunam- 
mite, as his wife. The request was immediately re- 
garded and punished as treason. Even so appeared 
the unceremonious love-making of Keeaumoku to 
Kahekili. Moreover, the king had intended Nama- 
hana to be his own wife and was only waiting for 
the proper period of mourning to terminate. Her 
haste, therefore, seemed to him the more indecent 
and Keeaumoku's offense the more rank. 

Thus, for the third time, " the Kingmaker " be- 
came embroiled with his feudal superior and would 
very likely have expiated his temerity with his life 
had not Namahana fled with him to her own estates 
at Waihae. Here the queen-mother was popular 
enough to laugh at Kahekili, who, moreover, had 
not been long upon the throne and did not deem it 
prudent to disturb her peace . 

But the crafty chief was only biding his time, and 
when he heard that Keeaumoku was living in such 
regal style that his designs on the throne could no 
longer be misunderstood, he knew that a suitable 
opportunity for interference would not long be de- 
layed. The occasion came without need for Kahe- 
kili to show his hand, and he had only to take ad- 
vantage of the jealousy of a neighbouring chief. 
This chief, Kahanana by name, he persuaded to at- 
tack Keeaumoku, with the result that the offending 
lovers were forced to flee to Molokai. Once in Molo- 
kai, Kahekili had no scruple as to following them, 
and at once invaded the island with a large host. 
Keeaumoku did his best to resist the attack, but in 



KAMEHAMEHA'S FIRST TASTE OF WAR 31 

the sea fight which formed the most striking episode 
of the campaign he was defeated disastrously and 
once again sought refuge by flight. Between two 
enemies, once his friends but now the victims of his 
fickleness, he chose to throw himself upon the clem- 
ency of Kalaniopuu, whose wrongs were not so re- 
cent as those of Kahekili. The Hawaiian permitted 
him to be received courteously by Mahihelelima, the 
governor of Hana, and here, within the protecting 
walls of the fortress of Kauwiki, he remained. 

But with such ignoble peace the restless warrior 
was by no means content. He spent his days dream- 
ing of campaigns to come. He made spears and 
built canoes. Like Alfred of England in the en- 
forced idleness of the swineherd's hut, he fretted for 
action. So life went on till 1768, when courage re- 
turned with opportunity. The opportunity was the 
presentation to him by Namahana of a daughter. In 
days to come this daughter was to exercise author- 
ity in Hawaii such as no woman had ever wielded 
before. She was to become the wife of Kame- 
hameha, the regent of the kingdom, the destroyer of 
the gods, the temples and the tabus. A century after 
men would look back to the happiest times the land 
had known and talk of them as the " days of Kaa- 
humanu." 

All this was as yet " on the knees of the gods," 
but the great things in store for the baby chief were 
predicted, it is said, by her being born with a yellow 
feather in her mouth. Much more was predicted 
not many years later by the aged seer Keaulumoku, 
who also encouraged the fickle father to attach him- 
self definitely to the rising star of Kamehameha. 

Now at last we come upon events wherein the 



32 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

name of Kamehameha figures as an active partici- 
pant in the story of the time. In the year 1775 the 
war between Maui and Hawaii once more burst 
forth. Kalaniopuu still held Kauwiki, in the dis- 
trict of Hana, and from this stronghold made irri- 
tating and devastating sorties into the dominions 
of Kahekili, laying waste the fields of Kaupo and re- 
ducing to misery the people who were totally unpre- 
pared for such excursions. 

This expedition is known as the " Kalaehohoha " 
from the fact that the prisoners were beaten cruelly 
about the head with the war-clubs of the victors. 
Such conduct as this could ill be brooked by the pas- 
sionate Kahekili, who was, metaphorically if not lit- 
erally, as sore-headed as any of his subjects. Mus- 
tering his forces he lost no time in avenging the in- 
sult. With such fury and effect did he attack Kal- 
aniopuu that the Hawaiians were utterly routed 
and but a bare remnant effected their escape to the 
friendly shelter of Kauwiki. 

The gloom of defeat was broken for Kalaniopuu 
by the valour of two men of whom honourable men- 
tion is made in the legends of the time. 

These were Kekuhaupio and his pupil, Kame- 
hameha, who before they were compelled to retire 
performed prodigies of valour. Kamehameha was 
the Ajax of the fight, and his towering bulk and un- 
erring spear made a lasting impression on the 
minds of his adversaries. 

Among the notable feats of this day, so far the 
most memorable in his career, was the saving of his 
teacher from the hand of Kahekili. If it be true 
that this battle was potentially the " Sohrab and 
Rustem" tragedy of the Pacific, father and son 



KAMEHAMEHA'S FIRST TASTE OF WAR 33 

fighting together for the mastery, the gallantry of 
the son, all unconscious of his parentage, in de- 
fense of Kekuhaupio, goes far towards shedding a 
gentler light upon the savage scene. 



IV 

PREPARING FOR THE STRUGGLE 

"There he thirty chosen prophets, 
The wisest of the land, 
Who always by Lars Porsena 
Both morn and evening stand.'* 

KALANIOPUtT was so weakened by the re- 
verse described in the last chapter that he 
determined to return to Hawaii, as the 
Titans returned to their mother earth, to repair his 
exhausted forces. This time he decided not to court 
failure by underestimating his enemies' strength, 
and all his chiefs, Xamehameha included, were kept 
busy throughout the year. Never before had such a 
mustering of troops and canoes been seen. Never 
had court been so completely transformed into a 
camp. At the head of the army, now reorganized 
and divided into brigades, was a regiment of life- 
guards drawn from members of the royal family. 
Just below these were two fine brigades composed of 
nobles who had the right to eat at the king's table. 
Next came six army corps of the finest warriors of 
Hawaii, all perfectly drilled and splendidly armed. 
Such a force did not spell defeat, but to make as- 
surance doubly sure and to satisfy both priests and 
people, Kalaniopuu availed himself of resources 
spiritual as well as material. In the first place, 

34 



PREPARING FOB THE STRUGGLE 35 

Holoae, the priest who in an earlier battle had cir- 
cumvented the incantations of Kaaukau, was set to 
work with his fellow divines to use all spells in his 
possession for the discomfiture of Maui. As Balak, 
king of Moab, sent for Balaam to work the ruin of 
Israel, so sent Kalaniopuu for Holoae to overcome 
by sorcery the might of Maui. 

In addition he exerted himself to put in good re- 
pair the temples of the gods. He was determined 
that no slighted deity should take advantage of the 
impending campaign to avenge a neglected shrine. 
So, to the great satisfaction of the kahunas, the 
heiaus at Xahaluu and at Xailua, in the Kona dis- 
trict, were thoroughly restored. 

One god received special attention and, as this 
deity in years to come played no unimportant part as 
the war-god of Kamehameha, we may as well make 
his acquaintance at once. This was Ku-lcaili-mohu, 
sufficiently designated as Kaili, a veritable Moloch, 
the favourite war-god of the Hawaiian kings from 
the days of Liloa, in A. d. 1460, and possibly long 
before. Kaili was a wooden or wickerwork idol, 
covered with red feathers, with eyes of mother-of- 
pearl, and a wide, gaping mouth rendered hideous 
with rows of sharks' teeth. His shrieks, it is said, 
could be heard above the din of battle and the imagi- 
nation of the Hawaiians rose to the belief that Kaili 
might be seen riding above the sea of death, like a 
bloodthirsty demon of the war. 

Had all these preparations been confined to the 
side of Kalaniopuu doubtless the course of history 
in the islands had been materially deflected, but 
Kahekili met the friendly attentions of his neigh- 
bours with preparations not inferior to their own. 



36 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

Not to be outdone spiritually, he in turn looked 
about for a Balaam to curse his foes and from Oahu 
obtained the services of a priest who was at least the 
equal of Holoae. This was a notable wizard, named 
Kaleopuupuu, the ex-high priest of Peleioholani. 
Since the death of that chief the priest had been out 
of employment, but he now appeared to be the very 
man needed to curse the invaders. Of most distin- 
guished lineage, since he was descended from the 
foreign priests who were brought to Oahu by Pau- 
makua seven hundred years before, this formidable 
sorcerer easily persuaded Kahekili to imitate Kal- 
aniopuu by putting in order all the heiaus in his 
jurisdiction. He was assured in return that the 
Hawaiians would be snared like fishes in a net. 
" When Greek meets Greek, then comes the tug of 
war " ; with such kings as Kalaniopuu and Kahekili 
and such priests as Holoae and Kaleopuupuu, it 
was certain that the struggle to ensue would be 
worthy to be recorded in the annals of the land. 

While the canoes of Kalaniopuu are proceeding 
with their prows towards Maui let us take advan- 
tage of the opportunity to describe briefly some of 
the more conspicuous features of Hawaiian war- 
fare. 

In the calendar, the months from Januarv to 
June were the legal war months, but so far as ap- 
pears, the chiefs were not over-scrupulous about ex- 
tending their operations into the closed season. 
When a war was planned, the first thing was to 
send out heralds, or lunapais, to summon the chiefs 
to meet their overlord. Every chief brought with 
him his tenants, and every tenant his weapons, a sup- 
ply of candle-nuts for torches, calabashes of water 



PREPARING FOR THE STRUGGLE 37 

and stores of dried fish or other provisions. Occa- 
sionally, another officer, known as uluoki, was des- 
patched a little later to hunt up stragglers and 
slackers, arrest them, slit their ears and bring them 
back ignominiously to the camp with a rope around 
their loins. There was, however, seldom need to em- 
ploy the uluoki, since the alacrity of the Hawaiian 
for war rarely needed any spur. The lunapai trav- 
elled with such speed that he was able, so it is said, 
to complete the circuit of the island of Hawaii, a 
distance of three hundred miles, over mountains 
and gorges, with the delays necessary for him to de- 
liver his summons, in the space of eight or nine 
days. 

A war might be either a war of courtesy or a war 
of devastation. In the former case, the hostile 
chiefs were formally challenged and all details, 
such as place of landing and field of battle, arranged 
beforehand ; in the latter case, it was obviously im- 
portant to keep all plans as secret as possible and to 
give the foe no advantage. 

When the war conches sounded thousands of men 
flocked together from areas whence only hundreds 
could be drawn to-day. The priests then consulted 
the auguries and, if these were found auspicious, 
the preparations went on apace. For the most part 
the warriors went into battle naked but for the malo 
around the loins, or perhaps with a piece of Jcapa, 
or native cloth, bound about the head. They bore 
for weapons the long spear, or pololo, sixteen or 
twenty feet long, and used to hurl at the yet distant 
foe ; the javelin, or the, made of kauila wood, six or 
eight feet long, and used at close quarters ; the laau 
palau, or halbert, used either for thrusting or strik- 



38 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

ing ; the palioa, or knife, a formidable weapon sharp- 
ened at each end, the handle being in the middle ; 
the war club of hard wood, used by skillful hands 
with fearful effect; the sling, made from human 
hair or the fibre of the cocoanut, from which stones 
of a pound weight could be discharged with won- 
derful accuracy ; the battle-axe, made of lava from 
the summit of Maunakea or Haleakala ; and daggers 
of great variety of size and shape, edged perhaps 
with bits of flint or, worse still, with sharks' teeth. 
Bows and arrows were only used in sport, for the 
purpose of killing mice or birds. Shields and pro- 
tective armour of any kind were scorned by these 
warriors, who trusted to dexterity of hand and 
agility of body to evade the darts of the enemy. 

The troops were headed by their chiefs, who were 
distinguishable from the rest not only by their 
greater stature but by the ivory clasp, and the hel- 
met and cloak of yellow feathers. The arrangement 
of the army varied with the nature of the ground 
and with, the plan of the commander. As a rule, 
there was a centre, commanded by the king in per- 
son, and right and left wings, officered by the high- 
est and ablest chiefs. In the forefront went the 
priests, bearing the gods, whom they invoked with 
prayers and cantillations loud and long, while other 
priests concerned themselves with the enemy, using 
the bitterest sneers, insults and provocations to the 
fight. As with, all primitive peoples, the " taunt- 
song " was an important prelude to the actual fight- 
ing, and a battle of invective raged until the voices 
of the kahunas ceased from hoarseness, or until the 
impatience of the excited warriors refused any 
longer to be restrained. 



PREPARING FOR THE STRUGGLE 39 

The battle was generally in the open field, some- 
times, as has been already said, by mutual arrange- 
ment. Strategy was seldom practiced, and the am- 
bush was regarded as an act of detestable treachery. 

When the priests at length ceased their grimaces 
and yells in front of the enemy, the slingers ad- 
vanced, and a deadly hail of stones and spears com- 
menced. The first victim was called lehua and the 
exultant victor would tear from the corpse a lock of 
hair and raise it aloft with shouts of u He olio" " A 
frontlet." The whole host would respond " He oho, 
He oho" Then, as Achilles dragged the slain Hec- 
tor round the walls of Troy, the Hawaiian con- 
queror would drag his heana to the heiau, or temple, 
to be sacrificed as an ulukoko, L e., " increasing 
blood." Similarly, the second sacrifice was maka- 
wai, "face of water," and the third helua oni, 
" sand-dug." 

No quarter was given or expected. Even those 
who escaped from the battle-field were hunted down 
and beaten to death, or baked alive in the huge 
ovens made for the purpose. The slain were muti- 
lated and left unburied, but in the case of chiefs the 
teeth and bones were collected by the victors as 
trophies, as highly esteemed as the scalps of an In- 
dian brave. Some chiefs carried about with them in 
their baggage the bones of the alii whom they had 
killed in battle. 

Behind the army followed the women, with food 
and water to refresh the hungry and thirsty com- 
batants. Not infrequently they also took part in 
the fray, fighting beside their brothers and hus- 
bands and sharing all the risks of combat. When 
the last champions of idolatry fought against 



40 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

Kamehameha IT, Manona, the wife of Kekuokalani, 
transformed herself from a camp follower into a 
warrior, and in the end, with a bullet through her 
forehead, fell lifeless upon the corpse of her hus- 
band. 

A truce was arranged, when desired, through a 
messenger who bore a branch of hi, or ti, plant, and 
was universally respected. If a more durable armi- 
stice was required, the leaders met in the temple 
and wove together a wreath from branches of the 
fragrant maile. When the wreath was finished her- 
alds were sent out to announce the news over the 
countryside. 

Such was the general conduct of war at the time 
of which we speak. More we shall learn as we pro- 
ceed, but these few details will enable us to follow 
the account of the great battle of the Sand-hills 
which marks the year 1778 and brings into more 
conspicuous place the military prowess of Kame- 
hameha. 



THE BATTLE OF THE SAND-HILLS 

"So roll the billoivs to th' Icarian shore, 
From east and south when winds begin to roar, 
Burst their dark mansions in the clouds, and siveep 
The whitening surface of the ruffled deep. 
And as on corn when western gusts descend, 
Before the blast the lofty harvests bend: 
Thus o'er the field the moving host appears, 
With nodding plumes and groves of waving spears. 9 ' 

THE island of Maui is shaped like a lady's 
bust, with, the face turned towards the 
west and slightly inclined to the south. 
The face is represented by the mountain mass of 
Eke, rising to its culminating point where the ear 
should be, and from that point sending out valleys 
in every direction like the radii of a circle. Chief 
among these valleys is the famous Iao Valley, 
which runs from the ear of the bust to the neck. 
The other portion, corresponding to the breast and 
shoulder, is entirely occupied by the great extinct 
volcano of Haleakala, the largest crater in the 
world. It is difficult to convey any idea of this 
enormous cone of lava, once the peculiar chosen 
home of Pele and all her kindred deities, now the 
gathering place of their ghosts in chariots of driv- 
ing mist and cloud. The " House of the Sun " rises 
to a height of 10,000 feet, clothed with dense thick- 
ets of tangled shrubs and creepers. To the climber 
who has attained the topmost ridge five islands of 
the archipelago are visible below, through streamers 
of cloud, while beneath his feet on the one side 

41 



42 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

yawns the awful abyss where once Pele and her 
companions tilted at one another with lances of fire, 
and rode the fiery surges as mortals ride the surf of 
the sea. Seven miles across is the now desolate and 
empty cup, while the steep sides of black volcanic 
sand stretch downward to a depth of at least two 
thousand feet. Boiling through the Koolau gap 
pour the leagued battalions of cloud spectres, some- 
times filling the crater till nothing but a mist cal- 
dron lies before the eyes and the light of the sun is 
blotted out. But when they chase one another forth 
again, flying to the south through the gap of Kaupo, 
you may see, like ant-hills, the sixteen cones of sand, 
of which the least is some six hundred feet in 
height. 

Now imagine yourself somewhere on the slope of 
this terrific mountain, at Makawao, for instance, 
and you may have as fine a view of the battle of the 
Sand-hills as could anywhere be obtained. 

But we must go back for a moment to our illus- 
tration of the bust. Eke, as we have said, makes a 
shapely head; Haleakala the bust itself, with the 
point of the breast just below Makena. Between the 
two is a neck of lower land, with Kahului Bay 
forming the nape of the neck and Maalaea Bay the 
hollow of the throat. The isthmus is a belt of sand- 
hills, across which, when the trade-winds blow, you 
can watch the sand-pillars march like twisted col- 
umns from some Moorish palace moving along in 
weird procession. Near the back of the neck at the 
opening of the Iao Valley is the town of Wailuku, 
where in this year 1776, at the time of Kalaniopuu's 
invasion, Kahekili was holding court. 

Kesurning our station on the slopes of Haleakala, 



THE BATTLE OP THE SAND HILLS 43 

and fixing the position of the court of the king of 
Maui, we may cast our eyes along the contour of the 
throat and breast of the island and see the coast 
suddenly become alive with the canoes and warriors 
of Kalaniopuu. They lined the whole shore, some 
landing at Makena, some proceeding to points 
further north. So sudden and so general was the 
incursion that no resistance was thought of by the 
poor fisher-folk and peasantry of the district of 
Honoaula. 

But the wily Kahekili was by no means asleep, 
though it was early in the morning when the Ha- 
waiians effected their landing. Kalaniopuu, eager 
to follow up his initial success and deceived by the 
apparent inaction of the foe, listened to the war-cry 
of his warriors, " On to Wailuku ! " and resolved to 
gratify their ardour. Possibly the enemy was to be 
caught napping and the funnel mouth of the Iao 
Valley occupied without opposition. Success in this 
would mean the destruction of Kahekili's army. 

So Kalaniopuu selected from his nine brigades 
one which he deemed invincible. It was the famous 
Alapa regiment, eight hundred men, of whom every 
one was a noble familiar for deeds of daring to the 
College of Heralds. As this band of heroes marched 
swiftly across the isthmus, over what is now the 
Waikapu common, they would have made from our 
vantage point a dazzling sight, eight hundred war- 
riors, all of equal height, with weapons of equal 
length, feather cloaks streaming in the wind, 
plumed helmets flashing back the rays of the morn- 
ing sun, and dusky bodies gleaming among the 
scanty vegetation of the sand-hills. Not even on the 
plains of Troy was ever witnessed a braver sight. 



44 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

Still they marched, encountering no opposition, 
and it was not till they reached the very outskirts of 
Wailuku that they discovered Kahekili's readiness 
to receive them. Then the astute old warrior fell 
upon the Alapa brigade with troops from every quar- 
ter, and, with neither power nor desire to flee, the 
Hawaiians prepared to sell their lives as dearly as 
possible. Well may the historians speak of this as 
the Balaclava of Hawaii, but it was more costly than 
the original which gave the English Light Brigade 
undying fame. For only two men got back to the 
canoes to tell the news to Kalaniopuu. Of the rest 
the victors caught but one alive to sacrifice at the 
heiau, and even he disappointed his captors by dy- 
ing of his wounds. 

There was bitter wailing in the Hawaiian camp. 
Seldom had such a galaxy of heroes thronged the 
dim halls of Milu as on the day when the " Eight 
Hundred" fell, with their faces to the foe. Yet 
when the dismal news was brought to Kalaniopuu 
at Kiheipukua by the two survivors, with that 
power of swift decision for which he was noted, he 
at once called together a council of his highest 
chiefs. 

Whether Kamehameha was invited to this council 
or not it is impossible to ascertain. Probably he 
was there, for he was now nearly forty years old and 
already experienced in war. Among those who were 
present to our knowledge were several whose names 
loom large as Kamehameha's friends and counsel- 
lors. There was the tutor, Kekuhaupio, who was 
son-in-law to the priest Holoae ; Keawemauhili, the 
king's half brother, famous afterwards in the story 
of Kamehameha both as enemy and ally; the two 



THE BATTLE OF THE SANDHILLS 46 

half brothers of Kahekili, Kaineeiamoku and Kama- 
nawa, who had conie to Hawaii as Kainehaineha's 
nurses ; Naeole, who had kidnapped our hero on the 
night of his birth ; and many others, including many 
of Kalaniopuu's sons and relatives. 

It was not doubtful that the alternatives were a 
speedy retreat or a rapid advance of the entire 
army. Naturally enough, the general opinion was 
that Kalaniopuu should move upon Wailuku at 
once and overpower the Maui king by force of 
numbers. 

So once again the Waikapu common was covered 
with soldiers, and once again the cry " On to Wai- 
luku!" was heard on every side. This time, how- 
ever, Kahekili changed his tactics. Large reinforce- 
ments had just arrived from Oahu, under their king 
Kahanana, and with these distributed among the 
sand-hills, and his own force near the Waikapu 
stream, the Maui chief did not hesitate to engage 
the enraged warriors of Hawaii. Once more the 
battle raged over the plain. Chiefs scoured the field 
in search of fitting antagonists and around them 
fought their retainers in compact masses. Promi- 
nent in the m§l§e were the savage features and the 
stentorian voice of Kamehameha. 

"In arms intrepid, with the first he fought, 
Faced every foe and every danger sought ; 
His winged lance, resistless as the wind, 
Obeys each motion of the master's mind; 
Restless it flies, impatient to be free, 
And meditates the distant enemy.' ' 

But even valour such as his (and the legends are 
full of prodigious acts of bravery performed) was 



46 THE NAPOLEON OP THE PACIFIC 

unavailing in the invader's cause this day. Kahe- 
kilFs men were fighting, not for plunder but for 
home and native land, and they fought as men who 
would not own defeat. Yet it seemed as little likely 
that their opponents would yield, as they strove to 
avenge the destruction of the Alapa brigade. So 
the stubborn fight went on, till the plain from the 
Kealia salt marsh almost to Wailuku was covered 
with hillocks of slain and each army was ready to 
faint with exhaustion. 

* * So fought each host, with thirst of glory fired, 
And crowds on crowds triumphantly expired.' * 

At last, as night closed in,Kalaniopuu's enfeebled 
remnant fled coastward and the victors had lost so 
many warriors that they had neither heart nor 
strength for any lengthened pursuit. 

But Kalaniopuu knew well enough that the res- 
pite was but temporary, so once more the council 
was summoned, this time to consider measures for 
terminating the now hopeless contest. The first 
idea was to send Ivalaniopuu's wife, Kalola, who 
had the advantage of being also KahekilFs sister, 
and might be supposed to have influence with her 
brother. But the lady firmly declined, urging that 
as the war was one of devastation and not of cour- 
tesy her life would scarcely be safe. She was, how- 
ever, willing to suggest other emissaries and her 
authority as a high chief was such that at last the 
king agreed to send his son and heir, Kiwalao, ac- 
companied by the two royal half brothers, Kameeia- 
moku and Kamanawa. 

We may be sure that it was with much trepidation 
and many forebodings that the three chiefs, attended 



THE BATTLE OF THE SAND-HILLS 47 

by tlie heralds, passed through the outposts of the 
Maui army and approached the dwelling of Kahe- 
kili. The etiquette of access to a high chief was at 
any time complicated and rigid, and it would be par- 
ticularly so in the case of a defeated invader. For 
the slightest offense of the kind death was the pen- 
alty. It was death to cross the king's shadow; 
death to enter the inclosure unbidden ; death to re- 
main standing even when the king's name was men- 
tioned in a song. 

However, the three ambassadors were respect- 
fully received at the gate by the soldiers, who pros- 
trated themselves after the Hawaiian manner. They 
were then allowed to enter the inclosure, Kiwalao 
wearing the ivory clasp and all other insignia of his 
rank, while the two attendant chiefs bore his kahili, 
or feather standard, and his spittoon calabash. 
What would be their reception? Would the verdict 
be life or death? 

It must have been great relief, not only to the 
envoys but also to the spectators, when Ivahekili, 
who, Hawaiian fashion, knowing no mean between 
strenuous activity and lazy self-indulgence, was ly- 
ing stretched upon a couch of Icapa, turned over on 
his back face upward. The diviners and all others 
who stood near knew this to be a sign of clemency, 
for the Hawaiian chiefs were unwilling, like mod- 
ern judges, to waste time and breath in elaborate 
summing up of evidence and were wont to declare 
the royal decision by some not too violent change of 
position. " Iluna ke alo," — " face upwards," was as 
infallible a sign of grace as the opposite position, 
" Halo ke alo" was of inexorable wrath. Even so, 
but with more display of enthusiasm, the Koman in 



4S THE NAPOLEON OP THE PACIFIC 

the amphitheatre declared his royal will by turning 
back the thumb. 

Whether Kiwalao anticipated this action or no, 
he had at least learned a good lesson from past 
Hawaiian history. He remembered, doubtless, the 
story of Umi, the peasant prince of Hawaii, and 
how, desirous of forcing his father Liloa to recog- 
nize his kinship, he adopted the risky device of over- 
leaping the royal inclosure, fighting his way 
through the guards and flinging himself uncere- 
moniously into the lap of the dozing monarch. It 
was a kill-or-cure method, and in Uxni's case it 
worked a cure, restoring him to the status of a 
king's son. Possibly Kiwalao bethought himself of 
this ancient precedent, for on entering the house he 
went straight to Kahekili's couch, sat down in the 
royal lap, and commenced the customary salutation 
and wailing. For Hawaiians use their blood-curd- 
ling " auwe " not only to give vent to grief, but also 
to express pleasure at the meeting of friends. 
Doubtless both grief and pleasure were mingled in 
Kiwalao's case, but, until his safety was assured, 
the prevailing emotion was that of anxiety. 

That the king's favour was secured was soon ap- 
parent. Kahekili's half brothers began negotiations 
by crawling on their knees to the victor's feet. 
Then, since Kiwalao's rank precluded him from 
speaking before Kahekili, the latter stated his de- 
mands. Terms of peace were arranged and a day or 
so later ratified at a meeting between the two kings. 

Then, humbled and ashamed, a poorer but, we 
may hope, a wiser man, Kalaniopuu sailed with his 
discredited armada back to Hawaii. 



VI 

THE PROPHECY OF KEAULUMOKU 

4 'Amid the strings his finger strayed, 
And an uncertain warbling made, 
And oft he shook his hoary head. 
But when he caught the measure wild. 
The old man raised his face and smiled; 
And lighted up his faded eye 
With all a poet's ecstasy! 
In varying cadence soft or strong, 
He swept the sounding chords along.' * 

ONE would have supposed that by this time 
Kalaniopuu would have lost all stomach 
for fighting, or at least would have left 
Kahekili in peace. But so deeply did the sense of 
defeat rankle and so vehement was the desire to re- 
pair his damaged prestige that next year he is again 
upon the war-path and once more in Maui, ravaging 
the country from Kaupo to Lahaina. With this ex- 
pedition, however, we do not need to trouble our- 
selves, since, although Kamehameha took an active 
part in it, we do not hear of any individual exploit. 
Suffice it to say that on the whole the balance of vic- 
tory still inclined to the defenders, and that Kal- 
aniopuu's genius had still to look ahead for the re- 
trieving of fortune. 

However, from the skirmishes and raids of this 
year 1777, one event emerges which, small in itself, 

49 



50 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

was not without its bearing on the future fortunes 
of the islands. 

It may have been surprising to the reader that all 
through this sanguinary duel between the kings of 
Maui and Hawaii the chief Keeaumoku had taken 
no part, on the one side or the other. Both kings 
had been his friends; one he had assisted to his 
throne; and now both had become his enemies. 
What was his reason for inaction? Was he lying 
in wait till the rivals were mutually exhausted? 
Was he hoping to pay off old scores against them 
both? Was he taking time to find out which com- 
batant was the better man? Or are we to suppose 
that Kahekili, like Achilles, was sulking in his tent 
and despairing of any further glory to be won? 

But one day, when the army of Kalaniopuu was 
occupying the lovely beach and cocoanut groves of 
Lahaina, there came from the camp across the 
mountains to Hana a very welcome visitor. He was 
in appearance a man of venerable age, a very Merlin 
to look at, though not really much over sixty years 
old. His body was bent towards the earth, though 
when he raised his head his piercing black eyes 
shone like coals of fire through the masses of white 
hair and beard which swept his breast and 
shoulders. 

The visitor was no other than the famous seer, 
Keaulumoku, whom we have already encountered as 
a prophet of good things to Kaahiunanu, the beauti- 
ful daughter of Keeaumoku. Keaulumoku was fa- 
mous as a wizard in every island of the group. 
There was no knowledge hidden from him, and his 
lightest utterances were listened to and treasured 
up as oracles of the gods. He was a native of Ha- 



THE PEOPHECY OF KEAULUMOKU 51 

waii, born at Naohaku, in the Hamakua district, 
and here, on the rocky north coast, at the base of 
Maunakea, he had spent his youth more in commu- 
nion with Nature than in intercourse with man. 
For him the voices of the winds and waves were no 
inarticulate utterances and the stars spake with 
silent eloquence of the course of coming events and 
the fate of men. 

For some years, however, he had been an exile 
from his native island, in the house of Kahanana, 
king of Oahu, as court poet. When Kahanana be- 
came the ally of Kahekili Keaulumoku accompanied 
him to Maui and figured as a kind of Tyrtseus in 
the campaign of the sand-hills. His muse, however, 
was not the sole property of Oahu or Maui, for 
when Kahanana transferred his support to Kalanio- 
puu Keaulumoku followed suit and remained in the 
service of his native island even after the king of 
Oahu had returned home. 

This is the explanation of Keaulumoku's presence 
at Lahaina with the warriors of Kalaniopuu and of 
his visit to renew the acquaintance of Keeaumoku. 
There is something of pathos in this meeting be- 
tween the soldier and the bard. Just as Job's 
friends, sitting over against him in his adversity, 
wept but spoke no words of commonplace commis- 
eration, so Keaulumoku sat over against the fallen 
warrior and wailed to himself of the change of for- 
tune which had thrust the blood-drinking spear into 
a corner to rot and forced the chief of old renown to 
deem himself no longer of use. 

Then the wailing ceased and there stepped forth 
from the women's apartment a lady, still beautiful, 
though no longer young, leading by the hand a 



52 THE NAPOLEON OP THE PACIFIC 

bright-eyed little girl. The lady was Namahana, 
the wife whose marriage with Keeaumoku had 
caused so much jealousy and suspicion in the heart 
of Kahekili. The child was her daughter, Kaahu- 
manu. Kaahumanu was born to inspire love, and 
the circumstances of her little life had already en- 
deared her to her parents in no common measure. 
She was, as they said, " he keike ia no ka wa ilihune 
o na makua o maua" " the child of the time of her 
father's and mother's poverty." Twice already in 
her infancy she had escaped drowning. Once, 
wrapped in a roll of white kapa, she was laid asleep 
in the pola of the double canoe, while her parents 
coasted the bay of Kealakekua. Still fast asleep, 
she fell into the sea, and it was only when the long 
roll of kapa floating on the waves attracted the at- 
tention of the rowers that the baby was missed. 
Then they rowed back and drew her out of the 
water just in time. On another occasion, following 
with baby feet her mother along the beach, she was 
just passing round the prow of a canoe when a huge 
wave came and carried her away. She was barely 
rescued by the strong swimming of a cousin, even 
while the people on the shore were wailing, " Dead 
is the daughter of Keeaumoku." 

At this beautiful child of destiny the sage gazed 
musingly and promised that next morning he should 
have dreams to relate concerning her. So it came to 
pass, for before returning to Lahaina Keaulumoku 
chanted of the glimpses given him in the visions of 
the night of the future of Kaahumanu, the future 
wife of a king of great renown. 

Keeaumoku was naturally pleased, but at the 
same time disposed to think that information with 



THE PEOPHECY OF KEAULUMOKU 53 

regard to his own future would be more immedi- 
ately to the point than the horoscope of a girl of 
ten. "And is her father's name to be heard no 
more? " cried the chief, impatient with slow-footed 
destiny. " Here in Hana am I stranded, like an old 
canoe. Must I live a woman's life and die here for- 
gotten before my death?" "Nay!" replied the 
prophet, " much have you accomplished in the past, 
O slayer and maker of kings, but the past is but a 
shadow of the future. Your greatest work is still to 
come. Then at last you will pass in peace." 

More still the wizard told him, — how he should be 
the servant of a mighty warrior yet to appear, one 
who at present was beyond his guess, but whom at 
the right moment he would unhesitatingly recog- 
nize. Further he would not enlighten him. It was 
enough that Keeaumoku was soon to reappear in 
the council chamber and on the battle-field. Then 
would be his opportunity to scrutinize the faces of 
the chiefs to discover him under whom it was des- 
tined he should serve. More than once he might be 
disappointed, but the true hero would be pointed 
out by the spirit of Lono. Patience he had learned 
already, both in Hawaii and in Maui. Let him still 
be patient for a while and his reward was sure. 

With this advice the " Evening Crab " had to be 
content. Vague as it was, the prophecy could not 
be other than cheering to the man exiled from poli- 
tics and war these long and eventful years. It was, 
moreover, a prediction calculated to bring about its 
own fulfillment; it took him back to courts where 
heroes were to be seen and appraised. We may be 
sure then that it was with more cheerful mien that 
Keeaumoku bade farewell to Keaulumoku and 



54 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

watched the venerable figure making his slow way 
back over the mountains to Lahaina. 

Meanwhile, there was much need for patience, for 
there were years still to elapse ere the prophecy 
might be fulfilled. Kamehameha's personality, 
tliough by no means unf elt, was not yet dominant in 
the councils of his peers. It might be feared that, 
for a man who had reached the age of forty without 
recognizing the main mission of his life, destiny had 
already slumbered too long. But precocity is not 
always promise. True maturity comes slowly and 
the fruit of life is in proportion to its discipline. 
There is no generator of power equal to endurance. 
Moses waited through forty years of shepherd life 
in Midian before he was chosen to be Israel's leader 
and lawgiver; Muhammad waited through long 
years of unrenown as the camel-driver of Mecca be- 
fore he received his commission as prophet. In like 
manner, the " divinity that shapes our ends " was 
preparing Kamehameha through some inglorious 
years for the achievement of his task. 

Moreover, an event was about to come to pass 
which, dwarfing all intestine struggle, was to be- 
come an outstanding factor in the education of 
Kamehameha. Hawaii was about to be unveiled 
before the outside world through the arrival in 1778 
of Captain James Cook. 



vn 

THE COMING OF THE WHITE MAN 

" What a door for scoundrel scum 
I opened to the West, through which the lust, 
Villany, violence, avarice of your (lands) 
Pour'd in on all those happy, naked isles.' 9 

f~ §T""^ HOUGH the sole credit for the discovery of 
Hawaii is generally awarded to Captain 
Cook, there is reasonable ground for the 
belief that the islands had been reached by Euro- 
peans long before the days of the great British 
navigator. Hawaiian tradition declares that in the 
reign of Kealiiokaloa, the son of Umi, a vessel ar- 
rived off the islands, commanded by a white man, 
who was accompanied by his sister. The ship was 
dashed to pieces on the reef and most of the crew 
perished, but the captain and his sister escaped safe 
to the shore. Here they were kindly treated and in 
due course intermarried with the natives, becoming 
the ancestors of certain chiefs. 

So David Malo tells us in his history and For- 
nander calculates that the event took place some- 
where between 1525 and 1528. From foreign 
sources we have evidence that the ship belonged to a 
small Spanish squadron, commanded by Saavedra, 
which was on its way to the Moluccas. 

55 



56 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

This, however, could hardly be deemed a dis- 
covery, since no news of it was communicated to the 
outside world and the shipwrecked pair were 
hardly in a situation to claim credit for their find. 

But a few years later, in 1555, there is very good 
evidence that a Spanish sailor, Juan Gaetano, sail- 
ing in the same course as Saavedra, really discov- 
ered the group. This is supported by the archives 
of the Colonial Office of Spain. 

The question arises, did Cook know of this dis- 
covery? It is possible, because thirty-seven years 
before Anson had captured a Spanish ship, on 
whose chart islands had recently been marked in 
ink in the same latitude and longitude as Hawaii. 

But apparently Cook believed himself the origi- 
nal discoverer, since he argues that had the Spanish 
known of the group they could hardly have failed to 
occupy them, and he says the natives showed such 
surprise at the ships and firearms of the English 
that it is highly improbable they had seen such 
things before. 

At any rate Cook may fairly claim to have been 
the first to break the shell of Hawaiian seclusion 
and let in the light upon one of the most interesting 
of peoples. If we blame him, as we must, for negli- 
gence as a philanthropist, we must give him his full 
meed of praise as an explorer, a geographer, and an 
exceedingly accurate observer of manners and cus- 
toms. 

Captain Cook had completed his second circum- 
navigation of the globe and had received commis- 
sion to command the Resolution for a third voy- 
age on February 9, 1776. With him was the Dis- 
covery, under Captain Clerke, and the object of the 



THE COMING OF THE WHITE MAN 57 

expedition was to discover a northern passage from 
the Pacific to the Atlantic. 

After nearly two years' voyaging Cook left Bola- 
bola, in the Society Islands, on December 8, 1777, 
for the northwest coast of America. On December 
25th he discovered and named Christmas Island, 
which he left on January 2, 1778, and thence taking 
a northerly course sighted, on January 18th, land 
which proved to be the island of Oahu. He did not 
land, but soon after came to another member of the 
group, Kauai, which he calls Atooi, getting at the 
same time a glimpse of Niihau. 

This was the first time English eyes had looked 
upon the Hawaiian islands, and Cook soon perceived 
he had made no mean discovery. As he approached 
the southeastern coast of Kauai he beheld a party 
of native fishermen, and, holding out some brass 
medals on bits of string, with some pieces of iron, 
he was gratified to see that they understood the art 
of barter. They at once came off in boats, bringing 
fish, cocoanuts and bananas, which they proceeded 
to exchange for iron. Iron, he learned, both then 
and later, was most precious in the native eyes, on 
account of its usefulness for tools and weapons. It 
is not strictly true that they had no previous knowl- 
edge of iron, since its value was at once recognized, 
and Cook noticed among their weapons one made of 
a piece of iron hoop and another resembling the end 
of a sword-blade fixed in a wooden handle. The 
former may have drifted to the islands on a cask, 
while the latter might possibly have been the sub- 
ject of the legend of the Iron Knife. 

This famous story relates that a Japanese junk 
was once wrecked on the island shores and in pos- 



58 THE NAPOLEON OP THE PACIFIC 

session of the captain was found a bright sharp 
knife, which the ignorant islanders believed to pos- 
sess miraculous properties. For a long time it was 
the terror of the warriors, but at length in a battle 
near Wailuku it was lost and no one knew what had 
become of it. Then Waahia, a prophetess of Ha- 
waii, restored it to the light and gave it, on certain 
romantic conditions, to the king of Kauai. It is 
quite possible that it was there when Cook arrived 
and that it was this he saw in the hands of one of 
the chiefs. There is a chant, ascribed to Waahia, 
which runs as follows : 

"0 the long knife of the stranger, 
Of the stranger from other lands, 
Of the stranger with sparkling eyes, 
Of the stranger with a white face ! 
long knife of Lono, the gift of Lono ; 
It flashes like fire in the sun ; 
Its edge is sharper than stone, 
Sharper than the hard stone of Hualalai ; 
The spear touches it and breaks, 
The strong warrior sees it and dies! 
Where is the long knife of the stranger? 
Where is the sacred gift of Lono?" 

The natives refused to come on board the ships, 
but, to Cook's surprise, he was able to understand 
their language, which he calls "a dialect of the 
Otaheitan." This fact is important, as it renders 
all the more inexcusable some of Cook's conduct 
which might otherwise have been set down to igno- 
rance of the people and their intentions. 

As the ships proceeded along the leeward side of 
the island there was great excitement, the people 
crowding to the shore and the hills to see the 



THE COMING OF THE WHITE MAN 59 

strange monsters of snips and their no less strange 
inhabitants. Never, says Cook, had any people any- 
where shown such extreme astonishment at the 
sight of the ships. 

In a few days the natives gained more confidence 
and several were persuaded to come aboard. When, 
a little later still, a party was sent ashore to obtain 
water, the crowd showed an all too lively interest in 
the proceedings. They pressed on the sailors so 
that they could hardly move, taking everything 
upon which they could lay their hands and casting 
glances of envy at the cutlasses. In fact, they so 
impeded the work that at last it was thought nec- 
essary to fire, and one man was unfortunately killed. 
After this the islanders felt it the part of discretion 
to stand a little more aloof. 

This sacrifice of life may, or may not, have been 
necessary, but the stay at Kauai was marred by a 
far more grievous wrong to the people than the kill- 
ing of a man or two. This was the introduction 
among the islanders of a revolting and contagious 
disease. Cook was enlightened above the generality 
of commanders in matters relating to the health of 
his sailors and had received the Copley Medal for a 
treatise on the subject read before the Royal Society 
in 1776. His own orders, moreover, were well cal- 
culated to sustain his own honour and that of his 
country. When he ordered the watering party 
ashore he refused to allow more than one man to 
accompany the officer out of the boats, in order, as 
he says, " that I might do everything in my power 
to prevent the importation of a fatal disease into 
this island, which I knew some of our men laboured 
under, and which unfortunately had been already 



60 THE NAPOLEON OP THE PACIFIC 

communicated by us to other islands in these seas. 
With the same view, I ordered all female visitors to 
be excluded from the ships ... I wished to pre- 
vent all connection which might, too probably, con- 
vey an irreparable injury to themselves and through 
their means to the whole nation." 

These admirable orders were certainly not re- 
garded. The same night that Cook anchored off 
Waimea, a council was held at the house of Kama- 
kahalei, a high chiefess, to decide upon the welcome 
to be given to the strangers. Some proposed to seize 
and plunder the vessels and slay the crews ; others, 
following unconsciously the advice of Balaam to 
Balak, suggested sending the women to the ships 
with presents of fruits and vegetables. This sinis- 
ter counsel was followed, and it has been a gener- 
ally accepted tradition in the islands that that night 
Lelemahoalani, the daughter of Kamakahalei, was 
the guest of Cook. 

We need not, however, rely exclusively upon na- 
tive testimony, for the sequel shows only too tragic- 
ally that Cook's orders were not enforced, with the 
result, as Fornander states, of " death and inde- 
scribable misery for the poor Hawaiians." " No 
wonder," he adds, "that the memory of Captain 
Cook is not cherished among them." 

All this time the opinion had been gaining ground 
in the island that Cook was no mortal visitant, but 
an incarnation of the divine Lono, one of the per- 
sons of the Hawaiian trinity. Lono, so the tradi- 
tion ran, had in the misty past adventured with 
death but had failed. Then he had gone down to 
the abode of " the great woman of the night " to 
sleep in the halls of the dead. Yet, as in the kindred 



THE COMING OF THE WHITE MAN 61 

legends of Osiris, Tammuz and Balder, it was be- 
lieved that he would return again and when, on the 
afternoon of January 20, 1778, there stepped ashore 
on the beach of Waimea this tall stranger " with the 
white, shining face " and with a glittering sword in 
his hand, attended by men whose weapons spoke in 
thunder and poured forth flames of fire, the whole 
concourse fell flat on their faces before Lono, as the 
West Indian islanders before Columbus. It was not 
till Cook bade them rise that they ventured to look 
up ; then they hurried away to fetch hogs and plan- 
tains, which they presented as to a god, while the 
long-haired priests chanted the liturgical songs in 
honour of Lono. 

Cook gave presents to the islanders in return and 
next morning trading by barter went on quite ami- 
cably, the natives being eager to obtain a few nails 
or a scrap of Iron in exchange for vegetables, fowls 
and pigs. They even assisted the sailors in filling 
and rolling the water-casks from the ship and were 
amazed and delighted to see the quantity of iron 
which the boats contained. To get this they were 
ready to offer articles of immense value. The skins 
of the iwapolena, a beautiful scarlet bird, were 
freely bartered and not a few of the famous feather 
cloaks and helmets changed hands on this occasion. 
Here is Cook's description of the transaction : 

" Among the various articles which they brought 
to barter we were particularly struck with a sort of 
cloak and cap, which even in more polished coun- 
tries might be esteemed elegant. These cloaks are 
nearly of the shape and size of the short ones worn 
by the men in Spain and by the women in England, 
tied loosely before and reaching to the middle of the 



62 , THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

back. The ground of tliem is a network with the 
most beautiful red and yellow feathers so closely 
fixed upon it that the surface, both in point of 
smoothness and glossiness, resembles the richest 
velvet. The method of varying the mixture is very 
different, some of them having triangular spaces of 
red and yellow alternately, others a sort of crescent ; 
while some are entirely red, except that they had a 
broad yellow border. The brilliant colour of the 
feathers in those cloaks that were new had a very 
fine effect. The natives at first refused to part with 
one of these cloaks for anything that we offered in 
exchange, demanding no less a price than one of our 
muskets; they afterwards, however, suffered us to 
purchase some of them for very large nails. Those 
of the best sort were scarce, and it is probable that 
they are used only on particular occasions. The 
eaps are made in the form of a helmet, with the mid- 
dle part, or crest, frequently of a hand's breadth. 
They fit very close upon the head and have notches 
to admit the ears. They consist of twigs and osiers, 
covered with network, into which feathers are 
wrought, as upon the cloaks, but somewhat closer 
and more diversified ; the major part being red, with 
some yellow, green or black stripes on the sides." 

The purchase of one of these cloaks, each the la- 
bour of a hundred people for a year, for a few large 
nails, is enough to make the blood run cold. Very 
few of these famous relics of barbarism are now in 
existence. The terrible destruction of bird life, 
which was necessary to obtain the requisite feath- 
ers, could not possibly continue without exhausting 
the supply. The destruction was all the greater 
since but one feather was taken from each bird. The 



THE COMING OF THE WHITE MAN 63 

coveted plumes of golden yellow and scarlet were 
found on the bodies of a tribe of honeysuckers, 
which included the oo, the mamo, the iiwi and the 
akakane. These were caught on branches smeared 
with papala gum, and, as each little victim was 
strangled before the feather was extracted, the 
slaughter was prodigious. Eegular hunting parties 
were organized by the chiefs and sent into the inte- 
rior to obtain supplies of feathers. 

While Cook was on shore he managed, in com- 
pany with the ship's surgeon and artist, to pay a 
visit to an heiau, or temple, some distance up the 
valley, and on this and subsequent occasions he 
seems to have formed a decided opinion on the 
question of cannibalism. 

Seeing a man with a small parcel fastened with a 
string to his fish-hook, he asked what it was and was 
told that it was human flesh. Another native stand- 
ing by was asked whether it was customary for them 
to eat the enemies slain in battle and immediately 
replied in the affirmative. A few days later, on his 
return from Kauai, Cook says that a native who was 
refused admission on board asked whether the white 
men intended to kill and eat him, and another told 
the sailors that if they were killed on shore no one 
would scruple about eating them. This evidence 
Cook considered sufficient to prove the existence of 
cannibalism in the islands. 

Yet it is extremely doubtful whether the evidence 
is conclusive. Of course, native feeling at present 
strongly resents the imputation. King Kalakaua 
writes : " Although barbarous to the extent to which 
a brave, warm-hearted and hospitable people were 
capable of becoming, every social, political and re- 



64 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

ligious circumstance preserved by tradition tends to 
show that at no period of their history did the Poly- 
nesians proper — or the Hawaiian branch of the race 
at least — practice cannibalism." 

Any other evidence such as exists may be stated 
as follows : 

1. In offering a human sacrifice it was the cus- 
tom for the officiating priest to pluck out the left 
eye of the victim and make pretense of eating it. 
This, say some, is evidently the relic of some old 
cannibalistic rite. 

2. After Cook was killed, his heart was eaten by 
three children who happened to be on the beach at 
the time. But native assertion is positive and 
unanimous to the effect that the children on this 
occasion thought they were eating the flesh of a dog. 

3. Accounts have come down to us of cannibal 
bands who inhabited parts of Oahu and Kauai. 
Such were the " Cannibals of Halemanu" com- 
manded by the notorious Kalo in the seventeenth 
century. But, once again, these are always spoken 
of as foreign man-eaters, or as a remnant of the pre- 
Polynesian population whose extermination was a 
matter of lively satisfaction to the chiefs and 
people. 

Perhaps a fair summing up is that of the Rev. S. 
Dibble, in his " History of the Sandwich Islands," 
published in 1843, to the effect that, whatever in- 
stances may have been alleged, " the practice was 
not common, and it is due to the Hawaiians to say 
that those few instances that did exist were looked 
upon by most of the people with horror and detesta- 
tion." 

On January 22d, a rain-storm, such as is now 



THE COMING OF THE WHITE MAN 65 

called a Kona, came on, and Cook's vessels were 
driven from their anchorage. Kunning down to 
Mihau, they stayed there a few days and Captain 
Clerke made the acquaintance of a high chief who, 
with his wife, came out to the Discovery. The stay 
was used, on the one hand, to collect water and pro- 
visions, and on the other, to land some animals and 
seeds for the benefit of the islanders. Three goats, 
a boar and a sow of English breed were taken ashore 
and the seeds of melons, pumpkins and onions. The 
stormy weather continued and for two nights Lieu- 
tenant Gore was detained on shore, with twenty 
men, much to the anxiety of those on board. But 
they were most hospitably treated and used the op- 
portunity to see something more of the customs of 
the natives. On their return they reported that 
there were no running streams, that fresh water was 
scarce, that the houses were scattered, and the popu- 
lation of the island not more than five hundred. The 
customs of the people were cleanly and decent, the 
men and women ate apart, and the latter appeared 
to live in companies by themselves. Light at night 
was obtained by using the oily nuts of the kukui 
tree strung together to make torches. 

On February 2d Cook's first visit to the islands 
came to an end for, the anchor of the Discovery hav- 
ing started, the ship drifted so far that it was con- 
sidered advisable to continue the voyage northward 
without completing the provisioning of the ships. 

There was, however, sufficient for two months 
with Captain Clerke, and Cook himself had enough 
for several weeks, so they sailed away. Thus was ac- 
complished the discovery of the Hawaiian group. 
Cook called them the Sandwich Islands, in honour 



66 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

of his friend and patron the Earl of Sandwich, who 
was then First Lord of the Admiralty. 

During this visit five islands are mentioned, 
Kauai, Oahu, Lehua, Kaula, or Bird Island, and 
Mihau. Cook estimated the population of Kauai as 
not less than 30,000, a startling number when it is 
recalled that to-day the whole native population of 
the group is less than this. 

But, as has been already noted, Cook left behind 
him diseases hitherto unknown, which spread 
through the islands like the flames of hell and 
worked deadlier havoc than their intestine feuds 
and savage wars. 

Native wonder and perplexity were not dissi- 
pated by the departure. Thirty years previously it 
is said that one of King Peleioholanf s canoes had 
sighted just such another ship as Cook's, but it was 
too far off to make much impression. Now, how- 
ever, the winged monsters came near enough for 
them to explore the mystery. David Malo, the na- 
tive historian, well expresses the simple wonder of 
the people as follows : 

" It is at Waimea, on Kauai, that Lono first ar- 
rived. He arrived in the month of January in the 
year of our Lord 1778. Kaneoneo and Keawe were 
the chiefs of Kauai at that time. He arrived in the 
night at Waimea, and when daylight came, the na- 
tives ashore perceived the wonderful thing that had 
arrived and they expressed their astonishment with 
great exclamations. One said to another, * What is 
that great thing with branches? ' Others said, i It 
is a forest that has slid down into the sea,' and the 
gabble and the noise was great. Then the chiefs 
ordered some natives to go in a canoe and observe 



THE COMING OF THE WHITE MAK 67 

and examine well that wonderful thing. They went 
and when they came to the ship they saw the iron 
that was attached to the outside of the ship and they 
were greatly rejoiced at the quantity of iron. Be- 
cause the iron was known before that time from 
wood with iron (on it) that had formerly drifted 
ashore, but it was in small quantity, and here was 
plenty. And they entered on board, and they saw 
the people with white foreheads, bright eyes, loose 
garments, corner-shaped heads, and unintelligible 
speech." 

The same writer goes on to tell how at first the 
sailors were mistaken for women, because their 
heads were so like the women's heads of the period. 
Also of the attempt of the chiefs to seize some of the 
iron and of the death of one who was " killed by a 
ball from a squirt gun." Then of the fear which 
came over the people when they saw the guns flash- 
ing and the rockets ascending, and how they thought 
Cook was certainly a god and called him Lono- 
makua. The priests especially espoused this theory 
and the priest Kuoho said that the ship in the har- 
bour was the temple of Lono, with the ladders of 
Keolewa, and the steps to the altar. Afterwards 
this priest had his doubts about Cook's divinity and 
declared by means of the sacred cup that the vis- 
itors were not gods but foreigners from the same 
land whence had come Kaekae and Kukanoloa. But 
the scepticism of Kuoho was overcome by the faith 
of the multitude that the gods had indeed come 
down to them in the likeness of men and that their 
eyes had verily beheld the divine " Lono of the flash- 
ing face." 

As soon as Cook had departed, messengers were 



68 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

sent from Kauai to Oalm to acquaint their less for- 
tunate neighbours with the story of the wonderful 
apparition. King Kahahana listened in silence, but 
his high priest burst forth with the declaration, 
" These people are foreigners from Hiikua, from 
Melemele, from Uliuli, from Keokeo. They are 
surely the people that will come and settle in the 
land." Others called to mind the prediction of the 
old prophet Kekiopilo, who had proclaimed, " The 
foreigners shall come here, — white people, — and as 
for their dogs, men shall ride upon them ; they shall 
bring dogs with very long ears." 

So the news spread through Oahu, and thence 
passed on to Maui, the messengers crying as they 
went, " The men are white ; their skin is loose and 
folding; their heads are angular; fire and smoke 
issue from their mouths ; they have openings in the 
side of their bodies into which they thrust their 
hands, and draw out iron, beads, nails and other 
treasures. This is the way they speak, — a hikapa- 
lale, hikapalale, hioluai, oalaki, walawalaki, poha, 
etc." 

Kalaniopuu, king of Hawaii, accompanied by 
Kamehameha and the other chiefs, was at Hana 
when the news reached him, and the Maui warriors 
shared in the general excitement. But none guessed 
to what important events in the history of the land 
the unexpected visit would lead. 



vm 

THE SECOND VISIT OP COOK 

"The gentle islands, and the genial soil, 
The friendly hearts, the feast without a toil, . . . 
Could these have charms for rudest sea-boys, driven 
Before the mast by every wind of heaven ?" 



Kji 



OOK spent the summer of 1778 exploring 
the Alaska coast and Behring Strait, until 
the gathering of the Arctic ice warned him 
to seek a more southern latitude for the winter 
months. It is not strange that the Sandwich Islands 
occurred to him as a fitting and congenial rendez- 
vous, where his ships might remain until the winter 
was far enough gone to enable them to arrive at 
Petropaulowski, in Kamchatka, by the middle of 
May. 

So Sanganoodha harbour was left behind October 
26th and after a stormy voyage the welcome discov- 
ery of the island peaks was made on November 25th. 
This time it was Maui which was first approached, 
and Cook learned how imperfect had been his dis- 
covery the previous winter. Then he had made the 
acquaintance of but five of the smaller islands, now 
he saw before him the towering height of Haleakala, 
"House of the Sun" with its huge crater rising 
high above the clouds. 

However, that same tremendous surf which some- 
times now rises mountain high along the coral reef 
made the weathering of the coast at this point im- 
possible ; so, ranging to the westward, and beating 

69 



70 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

to windward, round the eastern coast of Maui, Cook 
passed on towards Wailua, where Kalaniopuu of 
Hawaii was, as we have seen, at the time encamped. 

On the way the canoes paid constant visits to the 
ships and some trading was accomplished, but the 
captains would not permit at this time an indis- 
criminate trade. The traffic was restricted to barter 
for provisions and was carried on through officers 
appointed for the purpose. Under these conditions 
the ships were supplied with plenty of cuttle-fish, 
then, as now, a much prized article of food among 
the natives, and the fishermen got their meed of 
nails and iron. 

It would be interesting to have a full account of 
Cook's visit to the court of Kalaniopuu, but few de- 
tails have been preserved. The king, attended by 
several chiefs, among whom Kamehameha is men- 
tioned, paid a visit to the ships, and our hero with 
characteristic bravery stayed with some of his at- 
tendants a whole night on board the Resolution. 
All the native accounts concur in relating this ad- 
venture, even when omitting reference to the visit 
of Kalaniopuu. It was, indeed, no small act of dar- 
ing when one remembers that the white men were 
strangers and regarded on all sides with supersti- 
tious awe. Cook, moreover, was not at anchor, for, 
having in the evening sighted Hawaii, he sailed 
thither in the night. When morning dawned, there- 
fore, and the natives on shore perceived that the 
winged monsters had disappeared, great was the 
wailing and lamentation. Kamehameha, they be- 
lieved, had been abducted, and in such esteem was 
he held that Kalaniopuu at once sent a canoe, 
manned with picked men, to overtake the ships and 



THE SECOND VISIT OF COOK 71 

bring him back. This heroic measure, however, was 
not required, for, to the great joy of the populace, 
Kamehanieha himself soon came back in the large 
double canoe which Cook had taken in tow. 

It was Kamehameha's first experience of the 
white man, and Cook evidently observed him 
closely, recognizing in him a man of mark. The 
Hawaiian, too, it is evident, used his keen powers 
to good purpose, and found the strangers neither 
gods nor devils, but men who might possibly prove 
useful to him in his designs. It may be impossible 
altogether to acquit Kamehameha of complicity 
later on in the murder of Cook, but it would be 
equally impossible to deny that he, above every 
other Hawaiian, rightly estimated the strength and 
weakness of the foreigners. Treacherous to them he 
rarely was; friendliness was his general attitude. 
He read the characters of white men as he read 
those of his own race and discriminated between 
bad and good, using the former and rejecting the 
latter. Had all his successors possessed the same 
faculty, the monarchy of Hawaii might have con- 
tinued till now. 

Cook, having got rid of his adventurous visitors, 
continued his voyage to Hawaii and at length ap- 
proached Kukuipahu, in North Kohala, where the 
ships lay off and on for some time trading for pro- 
visions. The sailors were surprised to see the sum- 
mits of the mountains (doubtless Mauna Kea and 
Mauna Loa) covered with snow, but the snow was a 
long way off, and no more congenial watering-place 
could possibly have been found. Here provisions 
were obtainable in plenty, including sugar-cane, but 
Cook nearly raised a mutiny by making beer from 



72 THE NAPOLEOK OF THE PACIFIC 

sugar-cane and serving it out to his crew instead of 
grog. He may have been right in declaring that it 
was wholesome and pleasant, or they may have been 
right in pronouncing it injurious to their health; 
but the fact remains that their conservative in- 
stincts would none of it and they left not the old 
love of grog for the new love of sugar-cane beer. 
Their practical verdict was that attributed to Nebu- 
chadnezzar when, as a compulsory vegetarian, he 
declared 

1 i as he ate the unaccustomed food, 
It may be wholesome, but it is not good. ' ' 

At Kukuipahu crowds of people went off in their 
canoes to see the vessels, and, seeing the sailors sit- 
ting on deck, some smoking and some eating water- 
melons, a fruit hitherto unknown to them, they re- 
turned with the news, " The men are indeed divine ; 
they eat the flesh of men and fire proceeds out of 
their mouths." Many a tourist, since then, has 
amply avenged the ignorance of the terror-stricken 
aborigines. 

The Englishmen, however, had a better opinion of 
the natives, for, although not regarding them as 
divine, they declared, " We met with less reserve 
and suspicion in our intercourse with the people of 
this island than we had ever experienced among any 
tribe of savages. They frequently sent up into the 
ship the articles they meant to barter and after- 
wards came in themselves to traffic on the quarter- 
deck. The inhabitants of Otaheite, whom we have 
so often visited, have not that confidence in our in- 
tegrity. Whence it may be inferred that those of 
Owhyhee are more faithful in their dealings than 



THE SECOND VISIT OF COOK 73 

the Otaheitans. It is but justice to observe that 
they never attempted to overreach us in exchanges, 
nor to commit a single theft." 

This is high praise and some part of it had evi- 
dently to be retracted after further experience, but 
still Cook's estimate of the Hawaiians must stand 
to the credit of the people who slew him. 

At length, on January 17, 1779, at eleven in the 
morning, the ships arrived in the bay which Cook 
has made forever historical, Kealakekua, " the land- 
ing of the god" — a name commemorating the ar- 
rival of the man with the shining white face, whom 
the natives too optimistically mistook for Lono, 
their divine champion and expected Messiah. 

Kealakekua Bay is situated in the district of 
South Kona, along the western coast of Hawaii, 
running inland about a mile and bounded by two 
points of land about a mile and a half apart. To the 
north is the village of Kaawaloa and to the south, 
amid a stately grove of cocoanut palms, the more 
considerable village of Napoopoo. Between them is 
a high rocky cliff, inaccessible from the seashore. 
Beyond the coast the land rises gradually, display- 
ing large patches of cultivated land and groves of 
feathery palms. Dropped here and there among 
these are, or rather were, in Cook's time, the habita- 
tions of a numerous population. 

Cook was immensely struck with the scene as he 
dropped anchor about a quarter of a mile from 
shore. " In the course of our voyages," says his ac- 
count, " we had nowhere seen such vast numbers of 
people assembled in one place. Besides those who 
visited us in canoes, all the shore was covered with 
spectators and hundreds were swimming about the 



74 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

ships like shoals of fish." They swarmed over the 
deck, sides and rigging of the ships, singing and 
shouting and making the most extravagant ges- 
tures, while those who were unable to scramble on 
board amused themselves all day long in swimming 
round and round the vessels. Before the Discovery 
had been long at anchor, so many natives were 
hanging on one side trying to gain entrance that the 
ship heeled over considerably and it was found ad- 
visable to obtain the help of the chiefs in clearing 
the vessel of its incumbrances. 

Kalaniopuu, as has been said, was away in Maui 
and the authority was left with two chiefs called 
Palea and Kanina. The former seems to have been 
a man of generous and estimable character and one 
to whom the visitors owed not a little during their 
stay. Next morning this generosity was conspicu- 
ously displayed when Captain King, with a guard of 
eight marines, landed for the purpose of erecting an 
observatory, so that those employed on shore ob- 
taining water might be overlooked and protected. A 
suitable spot was found, and Palea at once secured 
it for the working party, even offering to demolish 
some buildings which obstructed the view. Finally 
a potato field was selected instead and most readily 
granted by the owner. The priests secured it against 
intrusion by placing a kapu on the enclosure. This 
was effected by setting up the pululou, or kapu- 
stick, at the entrance, — a proceeding which was 
even too effectual, since from that time no canoes 
would land near them, no natives would enter the 
enclosure, and all the presents in the world were 
powerless to induce the women to approach them. 

This, however, was by no means the case on board 



THE SECOND VISIT OF COOK 75 



L 



ship, for while the shore party was hard at work, 
salting hogs and filling water casks, unvisited or 
only peeped at from over the fence, the sailors on 
board had scarcely room to perform their duties. 
Two or three hundred women at once were some- 
times sent over the sides of the ship into the water, 
where they sported about like mermaids until they 
were once more admitted. Under the circumstances 
it is natural to believe that the men on shore 
thought fortune very unequal. 

But near the observatory great doings were ere 
long to be transacted. Not far from the enclosure 
was a grove of cocoanut palms which, surrounding 
a pond of fresh water, seemed made to provide a 
place of religious retirement. Here, in huts around 
the pond, was an habitation of priests of Lono, and 
close by was the heiau of Lono himself, where the 
idols stood and the sacrifices were offered. 

It will help us to understand what subsequently 
took place if we try to get some idea of what a 
typical Hawaiian heiau was like. 

Though varying greatly in size and solidity, a 
heiau was not infrequently a building of great ex- 
tent and of considerable strength. There was, first 
of all, an enclosing wall, often of stones solidly built 
together. In the case of Mookini the stones were 
brought from a distance of nine miles, passed from 
hand to hand by an army of fifteen thousand men. 
The walls of this particular enclosure are standing 
to the present day and have a total length of 817 
feet, with a height of twenty feet and a breadth of 
eight feet at the top. It can thus be imagined that 
no small amount of labour was involved in the con- 
struction of such an edifice. Very often, however, 



76 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

the walls were a simple stockade of wood, gener- 
ally decorated at intervals with idols. Round the 
walls of the famous heiau of Pakaalani there were 
no less than a hundred gods stuck on poles like the 
heads of traitors on London Bridge. 

At the entrance was a kind of cross called the pea, 
which had the force of a tabu-stick, directing atten- 
tion to the sacredness of the place. Within the 
outer wall were many houses dedicated to various 
purposes. One was the Hale o Papa, a special tem- 
ple for female deities who were worshipped on cer- 
tain occasions by the high chiefesses, though as a 
rule women were altogether excluded from the 
heiaus. Then there were the drum houses, the 
house where the prayers were recited, the house 
where the offerings were cooked, the houses of the 
priests, generally at the north end, and, about the 
centre of the terrace, the residence of the king. The 
central space formed an inner court at the gate of 
which was the altar, a kind of scaffolding, on which 
the sacrifices were placed and left to putrify in the 
sun. And at the very centre was the oracle, a high 
scaffold of wickerwork, about four feet square, 
within which the priest concealed himself to declare 
the will of the gods when some high chief came to 
consult them. 

In the case of temples dedicated to Lono, all the 
buildings within the enclosure had to be of lama 
wood, thatched with ti, but in other temples, e, g., 
those dedicated to Kane, they were of oliia, thatched 
with uki. The Hale o Lono, which stood hard by 
the observatory erected by the sailors, had, however, 
some features of its own, since it belonged to that 
ancient class of heiaus which were built before the 



THE SECOND VISIT OF COOK 77 

last migrations from the south. It was, according 
to Captain Xing, a square, solid pile of stones, about 
forty yards long, twenty broad, and fourteen high, 
with the top flat and well paved. Around the edge 
was a wooden rail, ornamented with the skulls of 
men slain in battle, or sacrificed at the altar, and in 
the centre a ruined wooden building which an- 
swered the purposes of a shrine. The idols were 
arranged at the gateway and in a semicircle inside 
the enclosure, and the scaffolding which formed the 
altar was about twenty feet high. 

Such was the Jieiau of Lono, known as Hikiau, the 
ruins of which may still be seen overlooking Keaia- 
kekua Bay, and here it was that Cook found the 
firmest believers in his divinity. To this belief the 
priests held most tenaciously. Whether they were 
deceived to the end or whether having once com- 
mitted themselves to a theory, they were unwilling 
to discredit their prophetic gift, we cannot say. 
Certain it is that, having espoused the cause of Cook 
as the cause of Lono, they never swerved in their 
loyalty, even when he died. 

Believing then in the divine guest, the priests lost 
no time in doing him honour. The first overture was 
made by Koa, who went off to the ship and, upon 
being led to the cabin, wrapped some red cloth 
round Cook's shoulders, offered him a small pig, 
and pronounced a long prayer or discourse. Koa, 
■whom some historians seem to have confused with 
the high priest Kau, was a prominent man who had 
been introduced to Cook by Palea. From that time 
he constituted himself the Captain's special at- 
tendant, though in time, as his attachment did not 
seem altogether disinterested, the white men con- 



78 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

eluded that they had had enough of him and sent 
him off. He seems to have made considerable profit 
out of the visitors, and his notions concerning the 
Eighth Commandment were undeveloped. This 
character could hardly have been given to Kau, or 
his grandson Kailikea, or indeed any of the priests, 
who supplied the ships most generously with canoes 
full of hogs and vegetables and received nothing 
in return. "Nor was the most distant hint ever 
given," says the English account, "that any com- 
pensation was expected. Their manner of confer- 
ring favours appeared more like the discharge of a 
religious duty than to result from mere liberality." 
That Cook was aware of the religious nature of 
the homage rendered to him sheds an unfortunate 
light upon the subsequent proceedings. Had he in- 
voluntarily been made the object of adoration, much 
might have been said in excuse. But this cannot be 
alleged, for Cook had had ample experience of the 
superstitions of these simple children of Nature and 
on this occasion even expected that the manner of 
his reception would be singular, taking with him 
Mr. Webber to make a drawing of the anticipated 
ceremony. But, as in most cases of the kind, those 
who allow themselves to be enthroned as deities in- 
voke a speedy Nemesis, and when the eyes of the 
multitude are opened to the defects of the would-be 
divinity there remains none so poor to do him rever- 
ence. So Cook landed and was led to the heiaii 
Hikiau, to be solemnly installed as an incarnation 
of Lono. He was met at the entrance by the high 
priest Kailikea, who, chanting a long hymn to Lono, 
led him round the enclosure from image to image, 
stopping before the central one, possibly that of 



THE SECOND VISIT OF COOK 79 

Lono himself, to present the Captain with some 
putrid hog, sugar-cane, cocoanut and bread-fruit, 
all of which lay upon a table before the idol. Then 
the priest led to the aforementioned scaffolding and 
together they proceeded to climb, not without con- 
siderable risk of the structure coming down with 
them in a most undivine descent. But to the top 
they got at last, and there aloft, though far less at 
ease than at the top of his mainmast, Cook had to 
submit to be swathed about with red cloth and to 
receive the offering of a hog. This ordeal over, they 
descended, only to have a considerable part of the 
ceremony repeated. The arrival of Lono in person 
seems to have been considered extremely humiliat- 
ing to the other divinities, for the priest, as he 
passed round the temple, derided all the images ex- 
cept the central one in no measured terms, literally 
snapping his fingers in their faces. Before the 
image of Lono, however, he prostrated himself and 
caused Cook to do the same. Then came more offer- 
ings of fruit and pig, of which by this time Cook 
considered he had had enough, and a sort of litur- 
gical service was carried on between Kailikea and 
the people, of which the Englishman was the object. 
Fornander has preserved for us one chant used on 
this occasion, of which a part may be rendered as 
follows : 



i c 



Lono in Heaven ! Yon of the many shapes ! 



nr\ 



The long cloud, the short cloud, the cloud just peep- 
ing (over the horizon), 

The wide-spreading cloud, the contracted cloud in 
the heaven, 

From Uliuli, from Melemele, from Eahiki, 



80 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

From Ulunui, from Hakalauai, 

From the country of Lono, in the upper regions, in 

the high heavens, 
In proper order, in the famous order of Laka. 
Lalohana . . . here is the sacrifice, here is the 

offering. 
Preserve the chief, preserve the worshippers, 
Establish the day of light on the floating earth. 

Amen." 



When this had gone on for some time, the feast 
began. The natives set about cutting up the baked 
hog and Kailikea began to rub the Captain over the 
face and body with some chewed cocoanut wrapped 
in a cloth. Then while Koa fed Cook with mouth- 
f uls of putrid hog, Palea performed the same kindly 
office for Captain King. They could not eat much 
even though their zealous attendants chewed it for 
them, and they rather ungraciously hastened the 
end of the ceremony. 

From this time onward whenever Captain Cook 
appeared on shore he was invariably attended by one 
of these priests, who, going before, compelled all in 
his path to prostrate themselves. Even when on the 
water, passing between the ship and the shore, if a 
canoe was encountered, the natives immediately left 
off paddling and lay down on their faces until he 
had passed. Wherever he went, says the historian 
Jarves, " he moved among them an earthly deity, ob- 
served, feared and worshipped. " 

With the observatory protected by the spiritual 
authority of the priests, with the ships daily sup- 
plied with everything of the best the island could 
.afford, and with chiefs and priests vying with one 
another to do honour to their commander, the 



THE SECOND VISIT OF COOK 81 

Englishman's good luck must have seemed se- 
cure. Thus it was with no little surprise that 
when Sunday, January 24th, dawned, they found 
no canoes in the neighbourhood of the ships, 
all the natives apparently confined to their houses, 
and all intercourse interdicted. The absence might 
possibly have been endured, but the non-arrival of 
the usual supply of vegetables was certainly incon- 
venient. What could be the matter? Had they of- 
fended the natives, or had some new idea taken pos- 
session of their simple brains? 

It was nothing else than the arrival of Kalanio- 
puu, king of Hawaii, with his suite, from the island 
of Maui, and the king's first act was to put a kapu 
on the bay, so that no canoe dared to ripple the 
quiet waters. 

Now this institution of kapu, or tabu, is of such 
importance in the history of the time that a few 
words may not be out of place. It is one of the old- 
est of Polynesian institutions, going back to the old- 
est of the legendary chiefs. The puloulou, or tabu- 
stick, is said to have been introduced by Paao, a 
priest who came from Samoa about the twelfth cen- 
tury, and it is still preserved in the national arms. 
Kapus, permanent or temporary, affected every in- 
cident and every relation of life. Certain places, 
such as bathing places, paths, streams, springs, and 
even hills were kapu at the will of chief or priest. 
Certain foods were kapu, at least for some months 
of the year, and a close season for particular species 
was easily maintained in this way. Certain days, 
especially the days devoted to the worship of par- 
ticular gods, were kapu, and the greatest strin- 
gency was observed on these occasions. Sometimes 



82 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

perfect silence had to be kept; the dogs were muz- 
zled, and even the fowls placed under calabashes to 
keep them from cackling. A Puritan Sunday was 
nothing to such days as the caprice of the Hawaiian 
kings could inflict on their people ; only no one pre- 
tended to think the la hapu, or tabu-day, the happi- 
est day of the week. Nor in the inexorable opera- 
tion of hapu was there any place aux dames. The 
ladies, indeed, fared very badly. They were not al- 
lowed to eat with the men ; their food could not even 
be cooked in the same oven; it was death to enter 
the husband's dining-room; and certain kinds of 
food, such as pork, bananas, cocoanuts and turtles, 
were forever denied to the palates of the fair sex. 

All this, and the fact that hapu was by no means 
a dead letter, entailing the penalty of death for 
trivial offenses as recently as 1820, will show that 
the institution was a most potent factor in the so- 
cial life of Hawaii. It was their substitute for 
moral law, and although exercised capriciously and 
barbarously, yet on the whole answered the purpose 
of law, restraining and disciplining the appetites of 
the people and enabling the chiefs to control, ac- 
cording to their judgment, the wild and lawless pas- 
sions of the people. 

Now when Cook arrived at Xealakekua Bay the 
festival of the New Year was proceeding, conse- 
quently it was a hapu time. The priests, however, 
took a very practical view of the case and consid- 
ered that, since the festival was in honour of Lono, 
and Lono himself was present, it would be absurd 
to allow ritual rigidity to prevent them from show- 
ing him honour. So the Jcapu was relaxed, as we 
have seen, and free intercourse permitted, till the 



THE SECOND VISIT OF COOK 83 

arrival of Kalaniopuu reestablished the customary 
ban. 

Of course, Cook disliked very much the change 
from a regime of daily fresh vegetables to one of 
none at all and did not take his involuntary fast at 
all kindly. He even endeavoured to force the natives 
to come off against the will of their chiefs. How- 
ever, the tension was soon relaxed, for next day sup- 
plies were to be had as usual, and, furthermore, he 
received a private visit from the great chief who had 
for the moment overshadowed him in the regard of 
the people. 

Kalaniopuu came off attended by only one 
canoe, which contained his wife and family (to be 
correct, we should say, one wife and one family), 
and stayed on the ship till 10 p. m. This was 
merely the prelude to the state visit paid on the fol- 
lowing day, Tuesday, January 26th, when the king 
and his court came off in great pomp in three large 
canoes. First came the great state barge bearing 
Ivalaniopuu and his high chiefs. Among these was 
Kamehameha, — " Maihamaiha" Cook calls him, — 
" whom at first we had some difficulty in recollect- 
ing, his hair being plastered over with a dirty brown 
paste and powder, which was no mean heightening 
to the most savage f;ace I ever beheld." 

In the next canoe came the chief priest Kau with 
the idols. These were displayed on kapa of red, and 
are described by Cook as consisting of gigantic fig- 
ures or busts of wickerwork, curiously ornamented 
with feathers of a great variety of colours. " Their 
eyes were large pearl oysters, with a black nut " 
(probably a kukui nut) "placed in the centre, a 
double row of the fangs of dogs was fixed in each of 



84 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

their mouths, which as well as the rest of their fea- 
tures appeared strangely distorted/' The priests, as 
they advanced, were chanting their sacred hymns 
with great solemnity, hymns probably in honour of 
their visitor, the supposed Lono. Bringing up the 
rear came the third canoe, piled high with vege- 
tables and hogs, — doubtless the most welcome cargo 
of all in the eyes of the sailors. The canoes paddled 
a while round the ships, but their occupants made 
no sign of coming on board. On the contrary, they 
headed towards the shore in the direction of the ob- 
servatory. Cook at once understood the king's wish 
to be received on shore, and accordingly landed to 
welcome his exalted visitors. No sooner had they 
entered the tent than Ivalaniopuu rose up and threw 
over the Captain's shoulders the rich feather cloak 
that he had himself been wearing, placed a feather 
helmet on his head and a curiously wrought fan in 
his hand. Five or six other cloaks were laid at the 
Commodore's feet. 

This presentation was only the prelude to the 
ceremony which followed. Kalaniopuu's attendants 
brought the visitors four hogs, some bread-fruit, 
cocoanuts and sugar-cane. Then followed the cus- 
tomary exchange of names between the host and his 
guest, one of the strongest possible pledges of 
friendship. Next came the procession of the priests, 
headed by Kau, who wrapped Cook in a piece of red 
cloth and then began the liturgical service, the 
chiefs making the responses. 

In return for this reception Cook proceeded with 
Kalaniopuu, whom he describes as an infirm and 
emaciated old man, to make the roval visit on board 
the Resolution. It was probably on this occasion 



THE SECOND VISIT OF COOK 85 

that Kamehameha distinguished himself by stand- 
ing up for the integrity of Hawaiian caste. The 
chief Palea, who was on very friendly terms with 
the white men, was on board when the royal party 
stepped on deck and, although a man of no mean 
consequence, was, in Kamehameha's opinion, no fit 
company for the king. So our hero at once kicked 
him ignominiously overboard. It is only fair to add 
that Palea was wont to serve his own inferiors in 
precisely the same manner. Some days after, when 
one of the lesser chiefs who was friendly with the 
officers was invited to remain to dinner, Palea came 
on the scene, manifested the utmost indignation, 
seized the offender by the hair and would have 
thrown him overboard had it not been for the inter- 
ference of Cook. It was all the officers could do to 
effect a compromise whereby the newcomer was per- 
mitted to stay, sitting upon the floor, doubtless to 
his greater comfort. 

In consideration of the presents he had received 
Cook could not do less than bestow presents in re- 
turn ; he surely did not outdo his hosts, making the 
king the proud possessor of a cutlass and a linen 
shirt. Yet doubtless his Majesty, strutting up and 
down the deck, thought a linen shirt easily the 
equivalent of a feather cloak. 

During all this time not a canoe, other than the 
royal barge, was to be seen upon the bay; the 
natives on shore either remained in their huts or 
kept themselves prostrate on the beach. Cook made 
good use of his newly won favour to obtain from the 
king some relaxation of the kapu, at least so far as 
to permit the provisioning of the ships. " For what 
reason we could not learn," says King, one prohibi- 



86 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

tion, however, continued in force, — no women were 
allowed to visit the ships. But Fornander has upon 
this point the following significant note : " The 
reason was not far to search. While the fame of 
Cook had spread throughout the group, the disease 
connected with arrival at Kauai had also spread; 
and when Kalaniopuu, on his return from Maui, 
found the women received by hundreds at a time on 
board the ships, he took the only course left him, 
though, alas, too late to restrict the evil. It is 
somewhat remarkable that on his arrival at Hawaii, 
neither Cook nor King made the slightest mention 
of having taken any similar precautions against the 
spreading of the disease, which he says he took to 
Kauai. And when it was left to the sovereign of 
the island to protect his people, as best he could, his 
act, instead of awakening reflection and suggesting 
the cause, became a subject of wonder. Neither 
Cook nor King seem to have felt the quiet rebuke 
implied by the tabu being laid on the women." 

This eventful day concluded with a feast on shore 
and an exhibition of boxing and wrestling, in which 
the natives, even those of advanced years, proved 
themselves no mean antagonists. 

Then came an exhibition of fireworks from the 
ships which filled the natives with amazement and 
awe. They believed that the foreigners had legions 
of flying spirits at their command. But had Cook's 
men only gone to the great crater of Kilauea, the 
natives could have shown them fireworks, the work 
of Pele herself, to which their own display was tame 
and pale. The secret of these the volcano goddess 
kept in her own hands. 




IX 

THE DEATH OF CAPTAIN COOK 

"The gods are just and of our pleasant vices 
Make instruments to slay us. ' ' 

HITE men and natives had now mingled 
so freely together that, before proceeding 
further, it will he interesting to hear 
their opinions, now qualified bj experience, one of 
the other. 

From Cook's side we learn : " The behaviour of 
the natives was so civil and inoffensive that all ap- 
prehensions of danger were totally vanished. The 
officers ventured frequently up the country, either 
singly or in small parties, and sometimes continued 
out the whole night. To relate all the instances of 
generosity and civility which we experienced upon 
these occasions would require volumes. In all 
places the people flocked about us, anxious to afford 
every assistance in their power, and appeared 
highly gratified if we condescended to accept of 
their services. A variety of innocent arts were 
practiced to attract our notice or to delay our de- 
parture." 

Among these innocent arts would appear to have 
been included the habit of stealing, and although 
Cook's discovery of the innocent islanders under- 
neath the shi|) drawing out the nails of the vessel 
with flints was certainly calculated to delay his 

87 



88 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

departure, it would seem that the gentle attention 
was only repaid by small shot fired at the offenders. 
No harm was done, however, since the culprits 
easily evaded the shot by diving. 

What, on the other hand, was the opinion of the 
natives as to their guests? To tell the truth, spite 
of Cook's impression to the contrary, they had be- 
gun to be a little tired. The lavish contributions 
necessary to keep their divine guests from starving 
had become irksome, and the land was being eaten 
up. Moreover, the seamen had, in return for much 
consideration on the part of the natives, shown no 
reciprocal feeling. The most sacred kapus were 
broken without scruple, and the conduct of the 
white men was so abandoned as to disgust even the 
heathen. There remained only the superstitious 
awe which surrounded them. Should this depart, 
the scarecrow would no longer be respected, and 
the birds would peck at it, as at one another. 

It so happened that an occasion was not long in 
coming such as would sensibly diminish this super- 
stitious reverence. It came through our common 
enemy or friend, Death, who respects neither king 
nor peasant, neither white nor black. On January 
28th one of the seamen, William Watman, died and 
was buried in the enclosure with both Christian and 
pagan rites. For three nights the Hawaiians sur- 
rounded the grave, sacrificing hogs and singing 
prayers and hymns. But, though they thus paid 
honour to the dead, they could not henceforth think 
so highly of those whom they had hitherto thought 
of as sharing the immortality of Kane, Ku and 
Lono. 

It was awkward, too, for this reason, that two or 



THE DEATH OF CAPTAIN COOK 89 

three days later the faith of the natives was sorely 
tried by an act on the part of Cook, the injustice of 
which may well serve to palliate the later conduct 
of the Hawaiians. 

On February 2d Cook wanted fuel for the ships 
and concluded to ask for the rail round the temple, 
an article of whose sacred character there could not 
have been a shadow of doubt. Mr. King, we are 
told, had his doubts about the decency of the over- 
ture, but was apparently misled by the seeming 
willingness of the priests to grant the request, and 
their refusal to accept the two or three hatchets 
which were offered in exchange. It is obvious, how- 
ever, as Fornander points out, how they felt. They 
would not sell the possessions of the gods for any 
price whatever, but, if Lono asked this or that as a 
gift, though they might be paine'd to give, yet they 
would give freely, not only their rail, but the heiau 
itself, and themselves with it, as an offering to the 
deity they served. In the end, the men carried off, 
not only the fence, but the twelve idols which were 
within, and it is pitiful to read that the high priest, 
who had been the white man's consistent friend, 
had to come meekly to Cook to beg back at least the 
central image. 

'No wonder, after this, that affrays took place 
with growing frequency. Some quarrel in the 
course of barter, some discovery or accusation of 
theft, was of daily occurrence, and there was no 
doubt that the temper of the men on both sides was 
getting worse. 

As for King Kalaniopuu, he was importunate to 
know the date of Cook's departure, perhaps already 
dreading what actually took place. He supposed 



90 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

the ships had come from some famine-stricken 
country, and that the strangers had visited his 
domain only to fill their bellies, a conclusion which, 
Cook's account remarks, " was natural enough, con- 
sidering the meagre appearance of some of our crew, 
and the voracity with which we devoured their fresh 
provisions." Still by now the men had become 
quite sleek with good living, and the king thought it 
was time for them to go on a little further. This 
was probably the real reason for Kalaniopuu's in- 
quiry as to the time of departure, though the white 
men were vain enough to imagine it was solely to 
have time to prepare a suitable farewell. 

This belief, too, was not without some ground of 
factj though we are irresistibly reminded of the 
readiness with which the Egyptians contributed to 
the levy made upon them by the children of Israel, 
when they heard that these troublesome sojourners 
were about to remove across the Red Sea into the 
wilderness. 

On February 3d there was a farewell party given 
at the house of Kau, the chief priest, and the visitors 
opened their eyes wide with amazement when, on 
entering, they saw the heaps of good things brought 
together by the people. There were piles of cloth, 
abundance of precious red and yellow feathers, 
fastened with fibre of cocoanut husks, a large herd 
of hogs, and a great store of fruits and vegetables. 
The eager lust of possession was a little disap- 
pointed when it was learned that this was tribute 
brought for the king, but when the king came, he 
selected a third of the booty for himself and pre- 
sented the remainder to the white men, who were 
still able to marvel at the generosity of the gift. 



THE DEATH OF CAPTAIN COOK 91 

Captain King remarks, " We were astonished at the 
value and magnitude of this present, which far sur- 
passed anything of the kind we had seen at either 
the Friendly or the Society Islands." 

It was, however, in the strictest sense a "good 
riddance " present, " Egypt was glad at their de- 
parting, for they were afraid of them." Now the 
preparations for departure began to be hastened. 
The largest hogs were salted for sea-store, the re- 
mainder divided among the crew, the observatory 
removed on board, and the kapu taken from the 
place. The natives, whose curiosity had so long 
been restrained, now relieved their pent-up feelings 
in one mad rush over the recently sacred ground, in 
the hope of finding some valuables accidentally left 
behind. Of the members of the expedition itself, 
there was but one they wished left behind ; this was 
Captain King, who had won their confidence and 
esteem to an extraordinary degree. He received 
overtures of the most flattering kind, and when he 
declared that Captain Cook (whom they supposed 
to be his father) would not permit it, they said they 
could carrv him to the mountains and hide him 
there till the ships had sailed. " But the Captain 
will not sail without me," protested the officer. 
Learning this, the king and the high priest went as 
a formal delegation to Cook to request that he 
would leave his son behind. The Commodore could 
not give them a positive refusal, so he pacified them 
by saying that while he could not part with his 
officer at present, he would return next year and 
would then endeavour to oblige them. 

The morning of February 4th dawned on an im- 
mense crowd of natives in their canoes, assembled 



92 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

to see the departure of the Resolution and Dis- 
covery, and as the two vessels sailed out from the 
hay, escorted by thousands of dusky warriors, there 
was joy all along the coast of Hawaii. The chiefs 
were at last rid of their exacting and embarrassing 
guests, and could attend once more to their own 
affairs. 

But their jubilancy was short-lived. The ships 
had not proceeded further than Kawaihae, when 
they encountered a violent gale of wind, in which 
the foremast was sprung, so that it became abso- 
lutely necessary to return to port for repairs. 

Consequently, just a week after their triumphant 
departure, the ships once more made their appear- 
ance in Kealakekua Bay. There was no great 
jubilation this time. On the contrary an ominous 
silence pre vailed, faces were glum and betokened 
no warmth of welcome. A visit from Lono every 
day in the week was too much for his too materially- 
minded worshippers. Besides there was another 
reason. The Hawaiian men had become jealous of 
the white men, seeing that their women were so 
enamoured of the strangers as to lose all taste for 
the familiar charms of their own countrymen. 

Cook was greatly surprised at his lack of recep- 
tion, and as there was not a canoe to be seen on the 
waters of the bay, he sent a boat ashore to inquire 
the cause. The answer was returned that Kala- 
niopuu had departed from the neighbourhood and 
had left the bay under kapu. This was very dis- 
concerting, but Cook was not easily discouraged. 
Towards night a few canoes came off with pro- 
visions, induced by love of gain, which, for once, 
exceeded their respect for law. But the behaviour 



THE DEATH OF CAPTAIN COOK 98 

showed plainly that the former friendship was at 
an end. Only one class remained faithful, namely, 
the priests. Whether they still retained their be- 
lief in the incarnation of Lono, or whether, once 
having committed themselves, they did not care to 
appear discredited, we cannot tell. The fact re- 
mains that they still continued loyal as ever, as 
loyal they remained until the end. 

If Cook had been on the lookout for omens, there 
was still another circumstance which might have at- 
tracted notice. In the barter which was presently 
reestablished, the chief objects demanded were the 
iron daggers which the Captain had caused to be 
made for trading purposes. Could he have looked 
ahead a few days, Cook might have seen in this the 
stealthy step of an oncoming Nemesis, for, as the 
eagle in the fable received its death wound from an 
arrow winged with its own feather, so it was from 
one of his own iron daggers that Cook received the 
wound from which he died. 

However, in the need of repairing the damaged 
mast and sails, there was little time to make re- 
flections or to look for omens. The astronomical 
instruments had once more to be taken down, the 
observatory set up, and once more the spot was 
tabued by the priests. 

Next day, Kalaniopuu returned and visited the 
ships, showing no sign of ill-will, which, if he felt, 
he very effectually concealed. Still, even the 
loyalty of the priests and the liberality of the king 
could not prevent the outbreak of an unfriendly 
spirit on the part of the natives. It would be 
tedious to relate all the details which culminated in 
the murder of Captain Cook, but the causes of the 



94 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

sad event may be made sufficiently clear if we con- 
dense the various narratives which, have come down 
to us from English and Hawaiian sources. On the 
one hand we have Captain King's continuation of 
Cook's journal, and on the other hand we have 
Sheldon Dibble's account from native authorities in 
his " History of the Sandwich Islands." It is this 
latter account which Fornander incorporates into 
his history as the most trustworthy report of the 
affair ; as it contradicts King's account in no mate- 
rial point and supplements it by information col- 
lected from the high chiefs present at the time, it 
may safely be relied upon as giving us an authentic 
piece of history. 

Cook had had no more faithful friend among the 
chiefs than Palea, yet it was Palea who was the 
innocent cause of the first serious affray. A theft 
of some kind or other had taken place from the 
ships, and a boat's crew had been despatched to 
discover and punish the thieves. Engaged in this 
work, the officer in charge seized a canoe which 
happened to belong to Palea. The chief protested 
his innocence and claimed his boat, but as the of- 
ficer persisted in detaining it, a scuffle took place in 
the course of which Palea was knocked on the head 
with an oar and stunned. The natives avenged his 
fall with such a shower of stones that the sailors 
were compelled to swim off to a neighbouring rock 
and would certainly have fared badly but for Palea 
coming to himself and interposing to protect his 
assailants. He commanded the crowd to cease from 
violence, recalled the sailors to their jrinnace and 
assured them he would use his utmost endeavours 
to recover all that had been stolen. Palea's men, 



THE DEATH OF CAPTAIN COOK 95 

however, were not so generous and, perhaps because 
they had been punished for an imaginary crime, the 
same night they managed to steal one of the boats 
belonging to the Discovery. This they took some 
distance up the coast and broke in pieces. 

Had Cook been a wiser man he might have used 
the good will of the chiefs and priests in such a way 
as to protect himself from these annoyances, but he 
determined now to repress thievery with a high 
hand by adoj)ting a plan he had often found to 
succeed in the South Seas. This was to obtain 
possession, by stratagem, of the king or one of the 
principal aliis, and hold them as hostages until the 
theft was expiated. To succeed in this bold scheme 
it was necessary to put the whole bay under block- 
ade, so, with boats, properly armed and manned, 
stationed across the harbour to intercept any canoes 
which might attempt to break through, Cook and 
King left the ship for the shore, the former with 
Mr. Phillips and nine marines in the pinnace, the 
latter with a guard in a small boat. On landing, 
King was at once despatched to the dwellings of the 
priests to explain the meaning of the blockade. He 
found them exceedingly alarmed at what can only 
be described, in Dibble's words, as an act of " con- 
summate folly and outrageous tyranny," but he re- 
assured them as well as he could and told them that 
no harm should come to Kalaniopuu. Meanwhile, 
Captain Cook had bent his steps towards the resi- 
dence of the king, whom he awakened and found 
not unwilling to accompany him. Indeed all might 
yet have been well had it not been for the suspicions 
of Kalaniopuu's wife, who, like Caesar's wife of old, 
predicted evil and besought her husband to stay at 



96 THE NAPOLEOH OF THE PACIFIC 

home. The king's two sons were already in the 
pinnace when this lady, whose name was Kane- 
kapolei, came on the scene and refused to permit 
the king's abduction. Then came two of the high 
chiefs who, taking hold of the king, compelled him 
to sit down. Thus he remained, a picture of abject 
misery, willing to trust the honour of the white 
men, but restrained by force, while all around a 
hostile population was gathering who viewed the 
boats in the bay, and still more the demonstration 
on shore, as threatening the lives of the king and 
his chiefs. 

At last Cook perceived that he would have to re- 
turn foiled, and there was even then no reason why 
he should not have safely withdrawn from his peril- 
ous position, had not another undue circumstance 
changed the aspect of affairs gravely for the worse. 

The natives could hardly have been expected to 
understand the meaning of the blockade, and it was 
natural that some canoes should attempt to enter. 
They were fired upon and in one canoe Kahinu, the 
brother of Palea, was killed. His companion in the 
boat was our old friend Kekuhaupio, the warrior 
and Kamehameha's tutor. Hastening ashore he 
reached the excited throng just as Cook was giving 
up as futile the abduction. Palea also, grieved at 
the death of his brother, leaped up and, spear in 
hand, stood before Cook, vowing vengeance. The 
Commodore, now genuinely alarmed, fired upon him 
with his pistol, which, fortunately or unfortunately, 
did not go off, or, if it did, the small shot failed to 
penetrate the war-mat of the chief. 

Then followed a scene of indescribable confusion. 
The women and children were hastily sent off to the 



THE DEATH OP CAPTAIN COOK 97 

mountains, while an immense multitude of men, 
with their war-mats donned, their spears and 
daggers threateningly brandished, seemed almost 
to spring from the ground. Yells of rage rent the 
air and immediately after a volley of stones fell 
around the Captain. One of them struck him, but 
he retaliated by shooting his assailant dead. Then 
he struck another chief, Kanaina, with his sword, 
but the Hawaiian, a man of great strength, seized 
Cook, not to kill him, — for so far the natives did 
not believe him mortal, — but to hold him in his 
strong grasp. Cook struggled to free himself, and 
slipped in the attempt, groaning as he fell. The 
groan sealed his fate. It proclaimed to the natives 
that the white man shared the infirmities of mor- 
tals. "He groans, — lie is not a god!" cried the 
disenchanted islanders, not unwilling to dethrone 
their idol. Then they slew him. With one of his 
own iron daggers, the toys he had introduced among 
them, they stabbed him in the back as he turned to 
give a command to the men in the boat. The knife 
passed through his body, and he, before whom the 
simple islanders had so lately prostrated them- 
selves in fear, fell forward on his face and expired. 

Thus perished the brave but wilful Captain to 
whose explorations the world owes so much and to 
whom Hawaii too owes much, though perhaps not 
so much that is good. 

While the murder was going on it must not be 
supposed that the sailors in the pinnace were idle. 
They poured a deadly fire into the heart of the 
crowd, and the natives held up their leaf mats 
vainly to defend themselves. Thinking that it was 
the fire that slew their comrades, they dipped their 



98 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

mats in the sea to keep them wet. Phillips on the 
shore drew his sword, slew the chief who had 
stabbed his commander, then plunged into the sea 
and swam to the pinnace. 

Then Lieutenant Gore, from the Resolution, 
perceiving with his glass that something untoward 
was happening, fired a volley of round shot amid 
the crowd with such terrible result that there was a 
sudden stampede to the hills. The natives, how- 
ever, carried with them the body of their victim and 
there, in accordance with immemorial custom, they 
burned the flesh and secured the bones as the per- 
manent trophy of a great deliverance. From what 
subsequently transpired it would seem that the 
body was taken to a small heiau where the regular 
funeral rites were observed. As a sign of rever- 
ence, the bones were made up into an unihipili, i. e., 
tied up with red feathers, deified and, some at least, 
laid up in the temple of Lono on the eastern side of 
Hawaii. Here they received religious veneration 
as late as 1819 when idolatry was abolished. Yet, 
unless these bones, like the bones of certain saints 
in Europe, were miraculously multiplied, it is diffi- 
cult to accept every incident of the story. For a 
considerable quantity of bones were returned at 
various times to the ships ; the skull was kept by the 
warrior Kekuhaupio; other chiefs claimed other 
parts of the skeleton ; and Kamehanieha's son and 
successor took a few more bones with him to Eng- 
land as a suitable present to Cook's bereaved widow. 
Kamehameha received as his share the hair of the 
murdered man, while his heart and liver were eaten 
by some children on the beach in mistake for the 
viscera of a dog. The limb bones of the marines 



THE DEATH OP CAPTAIN COOK 99 

who were slain at the same time as Cook were 
divided among the chiefs. 

It is necessary for a moment to return to Captain 
King's 'party which, from its position on the other 
side of the bay, was horrified by hearing the sound 
of the guns and the yells of the crowd. King's heart 
misgave him, especially as he knew that Cook's long- 
familiarity with the natives inclined him to care- 
lessness and rashness. Moreover, he was mortified 
to feel that his assurance to the natives should ap- 
pear belied, still more so when Captain Clerke, per- 
ceiving the party surrounded and imagining them 
in danger, fired his big guns at the islanders. Hap- 
pily no one was killed, but a cocoanut tree, struck 
by a cannon ball and broken in two, remained a con- 
vincing proof of the power of the white man's guns. 

King did all he could to reestablish confidence, at 
the same time endeavouring to discourage the belief 
in Cook's death which had already commenced to 
gain ground. Then he went off to confer with Cap- 
tain Clerke and his departure was the signal for 
further fighting. A determined attack was made on 
the stockade, the natives assaulting it in the most 
persistent manner. One native especially extorted 
the admiration of the defenders. After the first re- 
pulse he returned, facing the fire of the whole party, 
to carry off a wounded comrade. He received a 
wound which compelled him to drop the body and 
retreat, but after a few minutes he returned, only to 
receive a second wound which forced him to retreat 
again. Almost directly after, faint as he was with 
loss of blood, he reappeared and for the third time 
seized the body of his friend. It is to the credit of 
British sailors that their generous admiration 



100 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

prompted them to cease firing and the noble savage 
succeeded in bearing off the body, only, however, to 
fall dead within his own lines. 

It was now judged prudent to bring off to the 
Resolution the foremast, tents, sails and instru- 
ments, and at the same time to send such a force of 
boats towards the shore as would be sufficient to 
overawe the excited and desperate natives and com- 
pel them to restore the Captain's body. Mr. King 
was entrusted with this difficult and delicate task 
and, after some signs of renewal of hostilities, he 
was enabled to get near enough to display a white 
flag and request a parley. The overture was an- 
swered by the chief Koa, not the most trustworthy 
specimen of the race, who swam off and received the 
white men's terms. Koa promised to report to the 
chiefs and declared that the body of Cook should be 
returned. He then leaped into the water and swam 
ashore. Yet there were manifest signs of intended 
treachery, for the people showed great anxiety for 
King to land, and when they could not succeed tried 
to decoy his boat among the rocks with the evident 
intention of wrecking it. At last, just as the officers 
were beginning to tire of waiting for Koa's return, a 
chief approached, who was in all probability Kame- 
hameha himself, and reported that he came from 
Kalaniopuu and that the bones, which had been 
taken into the country, should certainly be restored 
next morning. 

King had to be content with this promise and re- 
turned to the ship, though his confidence was by no 
means restored when he saw the people on shore 
strutting about with contemptuous gestures, some 
wearing garments which had belonged to the dead 



THE DEATH OP CAPTAIN COOK 101 

seaman, one chief brandishing Captain Cook's 
hanger, and a woman flourishing the scabbard. 

In the morning Koa came off to the ships, but 
without any body, and as his answers were evasive 
and he still seemed very desirous for the white men 
to go ashore, he was dismissed with threats. On his 
return to shore the natives seemed to be preparing 
for an encounter ; large numbers of men were seen 
inarching over the mountains and every indication 
given that in case of attack the natives would stand 
their ground. 

So all day long the captains waited again, but 
waited in vain, for no sign was given that the chiefs 
intended to keep their promise. However, at night 
there was a sudden cry of " Tinni" the native way 
of pronouncing King's name, from the side of the 
ship and two natives clambered on board. They 
turned out to be priests bearing with them a portion 
of the Commodore's body. Faithful to their old 
allegiance, they had, unknown to the chiefs, done 
what they could to restore the mutilated corpse by 
giving up the portion allotted to the high priest 
Kau. One of these two priests was the man who 
had always accompanied Cook as tabu-man and he 
had come to protest his own innocence and the con 
tinned loyalty of the priesthood. 

Tuesday, like Monday, was a day of anxiety and 
continued menace. Koa, whose brazen audacity 
was something to be marvelled at, still ventured to 
come on board, but as the priests had specially 
warned King against him, he was never encouraged 
to remain. 

Next day, as it had become necessary to send a 
party on shore for water, it was deemed justifiable 



102 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

to fire the big guns at the hostile crowd on the 
beach. This had the double effect of dispersing the 
multitude to the hills and of bringing off the imper- 
turbable Koa in his canoe with the news which, had 
it been true, would have abruptly closed our present 
narrative, that " Maihamaiha " had been killed. It 
is interesting to speculate as to what would have 
been the destiny of Hawaii had a chance volley at 
this time put an end to the hopes and ambitions of 
the patient and far-seeing warrior. However, Koa's 
news was premature by more than forty years, so 
we may dismiss the thought, especially since Kame- 
hameha stood so near to death all his life that there 
will be plenty of opportunity for speculation of the 
kind. Kamehameha, it turned out, was only 
wounded, and that not severely. 

On the morning of the 17th the intended landing 
was made and the Discovery was brought as 
near as possible to the beach so that the watering 
party might be protected. The need of this precau- 
tion soon appeared, for the natives had no intention 
of allowing the white men to take their water undis- 
turbed. From the caves on the face of the moun- 
tains they kept issuing forth, harassing the sailors 
with volleys of stones, so that, having to act con- 
tinuously on the defensive, they made little progress 
with their work. So irritating did the situation be- 
come that at last the big guns of the Discovery 
were brought to bear on the shore and this for a 
time had the desired effect. But only for a time, 
and then, perhaps naturally, but very unfortu- 
nately, the wrath of the long-suffering sailors was 
let loose and, before the officers could restrain them, 
the whole village was in flames, including the 



THE DEATH OF CAPTAIN COOK 103 

houses of the friendly priests. Acts of barbaric 
cruelty were perpetrated. Natives were decapi- 
tated, their heads taken on board, and the approach 
of a party bearing a flag of truce was so far disre- 
garded that it was fired upon till the arrival of an 
officer restored discipline. The party turned out to 
be headed by the priest Kailikia who, with some rea- 
son, expostulated with the officers on the treatment 
the priests and their village had received. 

It would be tedious to relate all the details of the 
negotiations which ensued. They seemed likely to 
last forever, not because the chiefs desired to evade 
the conditions demanded, but principally because of 
the naturally dilatory character of the native Ha- 
waiian. At length another chief, who is called 
" Eappo," appeared on the scene, and on Saturday, 
the 20th, the greater portion of Captain Cook's 
bones were, by the hands of this chief, returned, 
wrapped up in fine new cloth and covered with a 
cloak of black and white feathers. The only bones 
which were still missed were brought, it is said, by 
Eappo next day, but either the chiefs or the officers 
were imposed on, for the native accounts have al- 
ways insisted that certain bones were kept by the 
chiefs in the temple of Lono. 

" Eappo " declared that Kalaniopuu and Kame- 
hameha were desirous of peace, though hitherto 
they had been prevented from realizing their desire 
by the other chiefs who were disaffected. As Ka- 
laniopuu had remained from the time of the mur- 
der till now hidden in a cave accessible only from 
above, to which provisions were let down by means 
of a rope, it is probable that Ivamehameha was at 
this time the commander-in-chief of the Hawaiian 



104 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

forces. Kamehameha was never very anxious, at 
least in the presence of white men, to take credit for 
any share in the events of February, 1779 ; possibly 
some fear of reprisals was responsible for his mod- 
esty. Captain Portlock relates that in 1786 Kame- 
hameha was afraid to visit the King George and 
the Queen Charlotte from an apprehension that 
they had come to avenge the murder of Cook. Years 
after Captain Meares says that Kamehameha was 
anxious to persuade Captain Douglas that Kalanio- 
puu had been murdered for the part he took in per- 
mitting the slaying of Cook. If so, Kamehameha 
was certainly not telling the truth, for, on the one 
hand, Kalaniopuu played only a passive part in the 
tragedy and, on the other hand, he died of old age 
without giving rise to any suspicion that he had met 
foul play. 

No mention is made of Kiwalao, the king's son 
and heir, in all the proceedings, so it can hardly be 
doubted that Kamehameha was in command. Even 
so, however, it is not to be wondered at that he 
should have forcibly resented his uncle's abduction, 
nor can he be seriously blamed for the unforeseen 
way in which the events of that fatal day developed. 

We have now come to the closing scene of this 
painful episode. On Sunday, February 21st, the 
bay was once more laid under a strict kapu and in 
the afternoon the bones of the great explorer were 
lowered into the deep with the usual military hon- 
ours. The bay which had been called " The landing 
of the god " became the mortal grave of one un- 
wisely worshipped and untimely slain. 

On the beach of Kealakekua Bay, near South 
Kona, now stands a stately and conspicuous monu- 



THE DEATH OF CAPTAIN COOK 105 

ment erected by British sailors in November, 1874, 
which, since old feuds have been long laid to rest, 
commands the reverence of white man and Ha- 
waiian alike. 

Even on the day of the funeral the completest 
reconciliation appears to have been established be- 
tween the sailors and the islanders. The kapu was 
removed, provisions were brought off in the canoes, 
the chiefs came on board, and when, a day or two 
later, the ships prepared to sail, greetings were ex- 
changed in the most affectionate manner. It was on 
February 25th, the very day on which, sixteen years 
later, Vancouver hoisted the British flag over 
the islands, that the Resolution and Discovery 
sailed away from Kealakekua Bay and, after touch- 
ing at various points in the more northern islands 
finally left the group on March 15th, thus, so far as 
the Hawaiian Islands are concerned, completing a 
most memorable voyage. 

The results of the visit of Captain Cook have been 
well summed up by Fornander as follows: "(The 
influence of the visit) on the Hawaiian people 
was lasting and will long be remembered. He came 
as a god and in the untutored minds of the natives 
was worshipped as such, but his death dispelled the 
illusion; and by those whom he might have so 
largely benefited he is only remembered for the 
quantity of iron that for the first time was so 
abundantly scattered over the country and for the 
introduction of a previously unknown and terrible 
disease, As education and intelligence, however, 
are spreading among the natives, they will gradu- 
ally learn to appreciate the benefits that have fol- 
lowed and will continue to follow in the wake of his 






106 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 



first discovery. The reproaches that have been lev- 
elled at his memory will gradually fade, as men 
learn to judge others according to the standard of 
the times and the exceptional circumstances under 
which they lived and had to act ; and while time will 
eradicate the evils attributed to Cook's arrival, time 
will also bring into greater prominence the advan- 
tages and blessings, the light and the knowledge, to 
which his discovery opened the portals and enable 
future historians, be they native or foreign, to draw 
a truer, more just, and more generous balance. In 
contemplating what the Hawaiians were one hun- 
dred years ago and what they are to-day, no candid 
person can fail to kindly remember the man who 
first tore the veil of isolation that for centuries had 
shrouded the Hawaiians in deeper and deeper grow- 
ing darkness, who brought them in relation with the 
civilized world, and who pointed the way for others 
to bring them that knowledge which is power and 
that light which is life." 



X 

THE PATRIMONY OF KAMEHAMEHA 



a 



At least, the sceptre lost, I still may reign 
Sole o'er my vassals, and domestic train. 
To this Eurymachus: To heaven alone 
Refer the choice to fill the kingly throne; 
Your patrimonial stores in peace possess." 

THE departure of tlie British squadron once 
more set the Hawaiians free to attend to 
their own political concerns. Kalaniopuu, 
old as he was, still had his plans for self-aggrandize- 
ment, plans which would no longer be interfered 
with by the arrival of the foreigners, for, such was 
the horror of the outside world at the fate of Cook, 
that for seven years no vessel touched at any Ha- 
waiian port. 

Whether it was that Cook's visit had drained the 
Kona district of its natural supplies, or that the 
stay of Kalaniopuu with his court and army had 
proved even a greater strain on the commissariat of 
the neighbourhood, or that the two causes had oper- 
ated together, such a scarcity of food was presently 
felt at Kona that the king was obliged to move with 
his court to the Kohala district. Here, as if to give 
countenance to the theory that the visit of a king 
was worse than the avatar of a god, Kalaniopuu led 
such a merry life that the resident chiefs and the 
cultivators of the land began to grumble very 
audibly. 

107 



108 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

When it is considered that the king carried about 
with him, apart from his warriors, a whole army of 
retainers, such as stewards, sleep-watchers, mas- 
sageurs, JcahiM-hesLrers, spittoon-bearers, messen- 
gers, spies, prophets, executioners, astrologers, his- 
torians, poets, jesters, musicians, and dancing girls, 
it may be understood that the support of so vast a 
horde made no small demand on the hospitality of 
the common people, especially as not only their 
produce but also their time and their labour was at 
the absolute disposal of the king. It can scarcely be 
surprising that the exactions of a tyrannical or in- 
considerate monarch frequently gave rise to rebel- 
lion. 

If there was one district in Hawaii more famous 
for these outbreaks than another it was Kau. It 
was here that the people, wearied to death with fol- 
lowing up the king Koihala and his canoes along the 
rocky coast for mile after mile, at length ate up the 
food they were carrying in their calabashes and re- 
ceived the king on his landing with a shower of 
stones. " Here is your pig!" " Here is your dog!" 
they cried as they battered him to death. Here also 
another king, Kahaikalani, was killed while en- 
gaged in the construction of an heiau. Tired and 
disgusted with the labour of pulling up heavy pieces 
of timber to the top of the hill, they concluded to let 
go the ropes, with the result that the king and 
priests, who were pushing behind, were crushed to 
death. Here again died Halaea from a veritable 
surfeit of fish. He exacted such large contributions 
of fish from the fishermen of Kau that at last these 
turbulent and impatient folk, weary of yielding up 
the produce of their labour, threw so many fish into 




K 

> 

.2 
'EL. 



THE PATRIMONY OP KAMEHAMEHA 109 

his canoe that it was swamped and its occupants 
drowned. 

And now, preyed upon by the rapacious court of 
Kalaniopuu, Kau determined to keep up its charac- 
ter by associating with Puna and other districts for 
the purpose of kindling the flames of insurrection. 
The two chiefs at the head of the movement were the 
brave alii, Nuuanupaahu, and Imakakalaloa, who 
played the part of John Hampden by openly resist- 
ing the extravagant demands of Kalaniopuu. 

But the rebellion served no other purpose than to 
arouse Kalaniopuu from his unwarlike torpor and 
to consolidate, for the time, his power. Nuuanu- 
paahu met with a tragic death. One day, swimming 
in the surf off Kauhola, he was attacked by an enor- 
mous shark. He observed the monster only when it 
was too late, and one of his hands was snapped off. 
Faint as he was from loss of blood, the brave chief 
sprang to his feet on the narrow surf -board and 
there standing upright shot through the breakers to 
the shore. His wound, however, had drained away 
his life and he died a few days later at Pololu. 

The other chief, Imakakaloa, fought against the 
superior forces of his feudal lord for upwards of a 
year, over and over again evading capture through 
the clandestine help of the people of Puna. Imaka- 
kaloa was an Hawaiian Absalom. His hair hung in 
great black coils to his very heels and, like the rebel 
son of David, he was the darling of the people. But 
at last Kalaniopuu, irritated at the long resistance, 
and at the favour shown to the outlaw by the Puna 
people, ravaged the whole land with fire and left the 
district in ashes. Then one of the retainers of 
Imakakaloa was tracked and the hiding-place of the 



110 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

chief unwittingly betrayed. He was captured, 
bound and brought down to Kalaniopuu to Kamaoa 
in Kau to, be sacrificed. 

But we must go back a little to another event 
which made this ghastly sacrifice an important 
turning-point in the story of Xamehameha. 

Some little time after the outbreak of the rebel- 
lion, Kalaniopuu, perhaps apprehending that some 
untoward event might occur to put an end to his 
life and reign, sent messengers to Maui to fetch 
back his son, Kiwalao, with his mother, Kalola. At 
the same time he summoned a council of the very 
highest chiefs to meet in the Waipio Valley. 

Waipio, in the district of Hamakua, was an ideal 
place for a council meeting, not to say a picnic. It 
lay in a romantic valley, about a mile wide at the 
seaward entrance. The hills enclosing it were al- 
most perpendicular, but clothed with grass, creep- 
ers and shrubs, and while winding paths led up- 
wards amid the jutting rocks, beautiful cascades 
descended almost at a leap, forming a stream below 
which meandered along the valley and found a way 
through the sand-hills to the sea. The valley itself 
was a continuous garden, luxuriant with taro, ba- 
nanas, sugar-cane and fruits, while here and there 
gleamed a fish-pond well stocked with fish. Along 
the foot of the mountain, and extending up the val- 
ley as far as the eye could reach, were little groups 
of grass houses, looking almost as natural to the 
place as the trees and mountains. 

It must have been hard to lose one's temper or in- 
dulge in acrimonious discussion in a spot so conse- 
crated by Nature. In Waipio the palms are tallest, 
the leafage of the ever-blossoming trees greenest, 



THE PATRIMONY OF KAMEHAMEHA 111 

and the waters coolest. Fed by mountain gorges 
where the tear-drops distil down the black rocks, the 
streams ripple on, through ravines and over boul- 
ders, till they reach the blue-green sea with its 
white line of reef -foam. At one time, says an an- 
cient legend, the river was sluggish enough, but a 
great fish which lived off the Hamakua coast found 
the supply of fresh water too scanty for his needs 
and appealed to the god Kane for more. So fresh 
springs were created, the bed of the river was tilted 
up, cascades were formed, and the river ran, swift 
and full, to the sea. The great fish is there no longer, 
but, if so disposed, you may see the finger-marks of 
Kane on the huge stones which he hurled into the 
river. 

It was natural that advantage should be taken of 
such a favoured spot by the chiefs of Hawaii. Ac- 
cording to tradition, it was the abode of Akea and 
Milu, the first kings of Hawaii. Here also lived 
Hoakau, of grimmest memory, who, if he saw a man 
with a fine head, would send his servants to decapi- 
tate the luckless wretch and, in like manner, would 
possess himself of any man's limbs, if he thought 
them better tattooed than his own. Eight on from 
the thirteenth to the close of the fifteenth century, 
when Liloa died, Waipio was a royal residence. For 
these two hundred years it was the scene of princely 
hospitality and chivalrous tourneys, at which, as at 
European courts at that very time, the highest 
chiefs were ready to hurl a spear for the honour of 
their name or for some fair lady's smile. 

But, at the time of which we speak, " Ichabod " 
was written on the palace walls. The glory of the 
court was departed, though the prestige of the great 



112 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

heiau of Paakalani was still unimpaired, and so re- 
mained until the fierce warriors of Maui avenged 
themselves on Kamehameha in 1791. 

Here it was then in the year 1780 that Kalanio- 
puu assembled his council to settle the weighty mat- 
ter of the succession and other important affairs. 
The business did not take long. Kiwalao was left 
heir to the moi-ship, while the king's nephew, Kame- 
hameha, was appointed to the charge of the ances- 
tral war-god, Ku-kaili-moku, referred to in a pre- 
vious chapter. 

Now, although Kamehameha was appointed only 
to the second place in the kingdom after Kalanio- 
puu's decease, this second place, through the pos- 
session of Kaili, was by no means lacking in dignity 
and authority. Moreover, Kamehameha never in- 
tended it to be a sinecure even in Kalaniopuu's life- 
time. 

It was at the sacrifice of Imakakaloa, which we 
have mentioned as a turning point in Kamehameha's 
career, that this determination was first manifested. 
The sacrifice was arranged to take place at the 
heiau of Pakini, where, as was usual at such cere- 
monies, the victim was clubbed or stabbed in order 
that he might be laid upon the altar of the war-god, 
after preparatory offerings of fruit and pigs. On 
this occasion Kiwalao appeared as the chief actor in 
the ceremony and had begun by laying upon the 
altar the bananas and other fruit which formed the 
prelude to the piece de resistance. Suddenly from 
the crowd strode in the indignant form of Kame- 
hameha, who seized hold of the sacrifice and com- 
pleted the ceremony himself amid the amazed and 
silent chiefs. 



THE PATRIMONY OF KAMEHAMEHA 113 

Some said that Kamehameha had been incited to 
this daring act by counsellors who were impatient 
to see him fulfilling his destiny. Others believed 
that it was just from the impulse of the moment 
that he stepped forward to resist interference with 
what he considered his prerogative as the custodian 
of the war-god. 

At any rate it created an immense sensation in 
the court and whispers were not wanting to circu- 
late reports leading to suspicion that the audacious 
one had designs upon the throne of Hawaii. 

At this juncture the old king heard of his 
nephew's boldness and, calling him aside, gave the 
same advice given by Eebekah to Jacob when the 
latter incurred the hostility of Esau. He advised 
him to seek seclusion for a while, preferably on his 
own private estates, and, while not neglecting his 
duties as the guardian of Kaili, to leave the politics 
of the court severely alone. Doubtless this was wise 
advice, though Kalaniopuu was perhaps more influ- 
enced by the prudential consideration of his own 
interests than of those of Kamehameha. 

So the too-zealous guardian of the war-god said 
farewell to court and set out for his estate at Hal- 
awa, in the district of Kohala. But he took with 
him his wife Kalola, his brother Kalaimamahu, a 
whole crowd of retainers, and, above all, the treas- 
ured idol, Ku-kaili-moku. 

As to what precisely constituted the patrimony of 
Kamehameha there has been much dispute. His 
actual hereditary possessions would appear to have 
been little more than a not very extensive district in 
North Kohala. The centre of this district was 
Halawa. But, according to Dibble (who in this 



114 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

matter is followed by Jarves), Kalaniopuu divided 
the crown lands between Kiwalao and Kame- 
hameha, and, even before his death, gave Kame- 
harneha authority over the territories of Kona, Ko- 
hala and Hamakua, while Kiwalao held sway over 
Hilo, Pnna and Kau. Fornander doubts this, and 
thinks that Dibble was misled by the apologists of 
Kamehameha who were desirous of adding to his 
glory and at the same time of freeing him from the 
charge of having rebelled against Kalaniopuu and 
his heir. No division in the lifetime of Kalaniopuu 
is mentioned by native! authorities such as David 
Malo and Kamakau, who were contemporaries of 
Dibble. Moreover, had it taken place, Kiwalao 
would have had no right to divide as he did the 
lands of Kona, Kohala and Hamakua among his 
own adherents. 

Of course, land tenure in Hawaii was very inse- 
cure, since, at the accession of a new monarch, there 
was always a redistribution of the lands of the 
kingdom, with the exception of some portions which, 
in families of eminence, were considered hereditary 
and consequently secure from interference. It may 
be imagined that this periodical redistribution was 
no easy matter and generally made for the new king 
more enemies than friends, sometimes producing a 
crop of rebellion which brought the new reign to a 
premature close. Horace affirms : 

( "Optat ephippia bos piger; optat arare caballus," 

and the proverb has many a good illustration on oc- 
casions such as those to which we refer. The wind- 
ward chiefs, L e., those of Hamakua, Hilo and Puna, 



THE PATKIMONY OF KAMEHAMEHA 115 

desired the leeward side of the island, with, its rich 
fishing grounds, smooth seas and splendid climate ; 
the leeward chiefs, i. e., those of Kohala, Kau and 
Kona, longed for the running waters, taro patches 
and abundant food of the windward side. 

At the death of Kalaniopuu the possessions of 
Kamehameha consisted of : 1. The ancestral herit- 
age of Halawa, in North Kohala. 2. The Waipio 
Valley, in Hamakua. 3. Kailua, in the Kona dis- 
trict (probably) . The two latter estates were crown 
lands and not Kamehameha's in his own right; so 
we shall probably be safe in saying that at the time 
of his retirement from court the only possession he 
actually had was the modest estate of Halawa. 

Hither then came Kamehameha and here for the 
space of two years, like another Cincinnatus, he 
laboured at the cultivation and improvement of his 
land, building canoes for war and fishing, making 
fish-ponds and catching the fish. Of the work done 
during this quiet time not a little remains. At 
Mulii he succeeded in making a tunnel quite 
through the ridge, to bring a watercourse to the 
land. Years afterwards a chief pointed out to Mr. 
Ellis a perpendicular pile of rocks a hundred feet 
high where Kamehameha and his companions, by 
digging through the mountain mass, had made a 
good road, with a regular and gradual ascent from 
the sea, up and down which the fishing canoes could 
be easily drawn. At another place he had tried to 
obtain water by digging through the lava, but, after 
breaking through several strata, the work was 
found so difficult that it had to be abandoned. With 
no powder wherewith to blast the rock, and none but 
the most primitive tools, the marvel is that he sue- 



116 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

ceeded in effecting so much. Mr. Ellis was also 
shown fields, several acres in area, which Kame- 
hanieha kept in good order and well stocked with 
potatoes and other vegetables. One of these fields, 
called after his own name, he was accustomed to 
cultivate with his own hands. Several groves of 
noni trees (Morinda citrifolia) were also planted 
by him and kept in order. 

One of the fish-ponds constructed by our hero is 
described as consisting of a stone wall, six feet high 
and twenty feet wide in places, which ran half a 
mile across a small bay and enclosed a space not less 
than two miles in circumference. In the wall were 
several arches guarded by strong stakes driven into 
the ground in such a way as to admit the waters of 
the sea, but prevent the escape of the fish. 

In this way he made himself a benefactor to his 
own and succeeding generations, for, though fish 
formed an important article of diet, most men pre- 
ferred a lazier method of catching them than the 
laborious one of constructing substantial fish- 
ponds. 

Some made use of the narcotic plant auhuhu, or 
hola (Tephrosia piscatoria), which, pounded in a 
mortar and sprinkled on the water, never failed to 
provide a quantity of drugged fish to repay the indo- 
lent. Others preferred to wait for the leisurely har- 
vest of a harpoon, for it was by no means unpleasant 
to spend a few hours, harpoon in hand, on the 
chance of spearing some dainty member of the finny 
tribes. Others roused themselves occasionally to 
beat the sea with long runners of the convolvulus, 
driving the fish into the outspread nets. Some- 
times, too, energy was sufficient to take out in sev- 



THE PATKIMONY OF KAMEHAMEHA 117 

eral boats a long rope of twisted banana leaves, 
which, laid in a circle upon the waves, formed a 
kind of magic ring through the shadow of which the 
fishes feared to break. This was fish-pond enough 
for an emergency. The labour involved in all these 
methods brought immediate results, but building 
fish-ponds for future years and generations was far 
beyond the understanding of most. 

It will be seen then that Kamehameha's tempo- 
rary retirement was by no means barren of good 
both for himself and for the aftertime, and that it 
was possible for a chief, even in those warlike times, 
to live to good purpose far from the uncertain strife 
of battle. 

But indeed it seemed time for events to hasten 
themselves, if Kamehameha were ever to achieve the 
destiny predicted for him, for he was already forty- 
five years of age, and as yet the custody of an idol 
represented all the political influence that fortune 
had brought. 

A change, however, was at hand, for, in the spring 
of 1782 (Jarves says April, Fornander January), 
the old king, Kalaniopuu, breathed his last at Wai- 
o-Ahukini, near the southern point of Kau. It is 
impossible to say what was his exact age, but he 
was certainly over eighty, and for a large portion of 
a long life he had been a very considerable figure, if 
not the chief figure, in the history of his country. 
At the close Kalaniopuu's glory was diminished by 
the victories of Kahekili, king of Maui, who took 
advantage of the former's old age to win back the 
fortress of Hana, which had been in the possession 
of moi of Hawaii since 1759. 



<( 



XI 

KAHEKILI SUBJUGATES OAHU 

Quos Deus vult perdere prius dementat." 



KAHEKILI, whose relationship to Kame- 
hameha we have already sufficiently dis- 
cussed, was, perhaps even before the death 
of Kalaniopuu, the strongest chief in the whole 
archipelago. Therefore, on the decease of the Ha- 
waiian moi, the king of Maui was left with but one 
rival, Kahahana, king of Oahu, who was also his 
relative on the mother's side. 

Being a rival, Kahahana must therefore be 
crushed, and the manner in which Kahekili pro- 
cured the downfall of this brave young chief affords 
us more than a glimpse into the crafty and sinister 
character of this brutal old savage. The account 
may well be set forth here, while the Hawaiian 
chiefs are busy considering the situation created by 
the death of Kalaniopuu. The event is not without 
importance in connection with the story of Kame- 
hameha. 

Kahahana had been brought up at the court of 
Kahekili in Maui and when the Oahu chiefs did him 
the honour of electing him to the sovereignty of that 
island no one dreamed but that Kahekili would be 
exceedingly pleased at his good fortune. Perhaps 

118 



KAHEKILI SUBJUGATES OAHU 119 

he was secretly, but at any rate lie carefully con- 
cealed his pleasure and, in giving his consent to 
Kahahana's departure for Oahu, stipulated that he 
himself should have for his share in the bargain the 
land of Kualoa, in the district of Koolau, and also 
all the whalebone and ivory which might be washed 
up on the Oahu shores. 

In this demand he showed no little cunning, since 
in the Koolau district were situated the most sacred 
spots on all the island and the whalebone and ivory 
constituted no small portion of the royal revenue. 
But he can hardly have been surprised that neither 
Kahahana nor his chiefs showed themselves dis- 
posed to part with their property, and on the advice 
of the high priest Kaopulupulu, a man of high char- 
acter and true statesmanship, they returned to 
Kahekili a firm refusal. The king of Maui probably 
expected nothing else, but instead of making war at 
this time on Oahu, an enterprise which might easily 
have been disastrous, since the island was so far 
united in its support of Kahahana, he dissembled 
his feeling and bided his time. Meanwhile, he did 
all he could in secret to undermine the influence of 
Kahahana's counsellor, Kaopulupulu. In this 
treacherous line of conduct he was assisted by his 
own high priest, the younger brother of Kaopulu- 
pulu, but in whom ambition and jealousy had 
soured the milk of human nature. 

On the surface, meanwhile, there was nothing to 
show that Oahu and Maui were not on the very best 
of terms. Indeed, in the sanguinary wars of 1776 
and 1778, which have already been described, Kaha- 
hana and his chiefs fought side by side with the 
warriors of Kahekili against Hawaii. The Oahu 



120 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

allies arrived from Molokai on the very day that the 
Alapa Brigade was annihilated and they also took 
part with distinction in the general encounter the 
next day when Kalaniopuu was so completely 
routed. 

All through the comradeship of the two kings, 
however, Kahekili was on the watch, and even be- 
fore the natural termination of the alliance he 
found a spot in which to plant his poisoned shaft. 
His plan was to insinuate to Kahahana the disloy- 
alty of Kaopulupulu. The high priest, said Kahe- 
kili, had actually offered him the kingship of Oahu, 
and only his great regard for Kahahana had in- 
duced him to refuse the offer. So, he urged, it would 
be well for Kahahana to be on his guard against this 
trusted adviser. The wily suggestion did its work 
only too well, as slander generally does. Kahahana 
went back to his dominions resentful and distrust- 
ful, and such a coolness sprang up between the two 
former friends that soon Kaopulupulu withdrew 
himself from the court to his own estates. There, to 
show that the king had removed from him his 
wonted confidence, he adopted the singular expedi- 
ent of tattooing himself and his followers on the 
knee. 

Once without the assistance of Kaopulupulu's sa- 
gacity, the king acted just as Kahekili had antici- 
pated. He became harsh and tyrannical and went, 
so it is stated, to almost incredible lengths of sacri- 
lege and impiety, digging up the bones of the dead 
to make from them arrow points wherewith to shoot 
mice and rats, and even breaking open the tombs of 
the chiefs to make from their bones handles for his 
kahilis. Such conduct soon destroyed that unanim- 



KAHEKILI SUBJUGATES OAHU 121 

ity of spirit which, had been the main bulwark of 
Oahu against the designs of Kahekili. 

It was at this time that the death of Kalaniopuu 
occurred in Hawaii, and for a while Kahekili 
seemed to hesitate as to whether he should support 
one of the rival Hawaiian chiefs or turn his atten- 
tion to Oahu. Seeing, however, that Hawaii was 
likely to be the theatre of internecine feuds for some 
time to come, he resolved to let the chiefs there fight 
out their own quarrel and to take advantage of his 
opportunity to subjugate Kahahana in Oahu. 

We are outrunning events in Hawaii a little, but 
we may as well tell once for all the story of this 
expedition and then return to Kamehameha. 
Kamehameha himself was invited by Kahekili to 
take part in the adventure and contribute his share 
of soldiers and canoes, but he returned answer that 
he had too much on his hands just then and must 
wait till he had subdued the chiefs of Hilo and Kau. 
From Kamehameha's rival, Keawemauhili, however, 
Kahekili got some help in the form of men and 
canoes. 

It will be plain that Kahahana was now con- 
fronted by a very serious situation, but he had a 
still greater foe than Kahekili, namely, himself. 
With the insanity of one whose destruction has 
been decided by the gods, he had determined upon 
the death of his faithful but calumniated counsellor, 
Kaopulupulu. No one could have had a more loyal 
record than this ill-fated victim of slander, yet his 
execution was decided upon, and when Kahahana 
arrived at Waianae and sent for him, there was no 
doubt in the mind of the priest that he was going to 
his death. Yet he did not falter. Taking with him 



122 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

his son, he went out to meet his degenerated chief. 
His forebodings were not groundless ; as soon as he 
arrived he was attacked by the king's retainers; his 
son was drowned at Malae, and the father killed at 
Puuloa. It is related that when the high priest per- 
ceived his son in the hands of the murderers he gave 
utterance to one of those oracular sayings which the 
Hawaiian priests, like those of Delphi, were some- 
times constrained to employ, to the perplexity of 
those who heard them. " It is far better," he cried, 
" to sleep in the sea ; from the sea comes the means 
of life." 

This oracle was much pondered over by the Ha- 
waiians and a great variety of interpretations found 
acceptance. Some believed it fulfilled in the arrival 
of Kahekili from across the sea, with destruction 
for Kahahana. A little later it was interpreted of 
Kamehameha, coming from overseas with peace and 
unity of government. Others again felt that the 
words of the dying prophet had reference to the ad- 
vent of the foreigners with all the manifold bless- 
ings of civilization. Whatever the words may have 
meant, there can be no doubt that Kaopulupulu's 
death meant the alienation of the affections of the 
people and Kahahana's speedy defeat by Kahekili. 

So it turned out. The king of Maui landed with 
his army at Waikiki, marched his troops in three 
divisions against the forces of Oahu, and utterly 
routed them. It is interesting to know that, while 
Kauwahine, the wife of Kahekili, fought valiantly 
by the side of her husband, Kekuapoiula, the wife of 
Kahahana, did the same on her side and, after the 
battle was lost, shared her husband's flight to the 
mountains. Here for no less than two years they 



KAHEKILI SUBJUGATES OAHU 123 

wandered, hidden, fed and clothed by their compas- 
sionate subjects. At length, however, the spies of 
Kahekili attained their object; the miserable fugi- 
tive was captured and slain and his corpse brought 
in a canoe from Ewa to Waikiki. The dirge 
chanted by his widow as the boat with its tragic 
burden disappeared down the Ewa lagoon long held 
a prominent place among the meles of old Hawaii. 

One incident in this inter-island war is so roman- 
tic that it may well be told in the words of For- 
nander : 

" When the news of the invasion spread to Ewa 
and Waialua, eight famous warriors from those 
places, whose names the legend has retained, con- 
certed an expedition on their own account to win 
distinction for their bravery and inflict what dam- 
age they could on Kahekili's forces. It was a chival- 
rous undertaking, a forlorn hope, and utterly unau- 
thorized by Kahahana, but fully within the spirit of 
the time for personal valour, audacity and total dis- 
regard of consequences. The names of these heroes 
were Pupuka, Makaioulu, Puakea, Pinau, Kalae- 
ona, Pahua, Kauhi and Kapukoa. Starting direct 
from Apuakehau in Waikiki, where Kahekili's army 
was encamped, and organizing preparatory to a 
march inland to fight Kahahana, the eight Oahu 
warriors boldly charged a large contingent of sev- 
eral hundred men of the Maui troops collected at 
the heiau. In a twinkling they were surrounded by 
overwhelming numbers and a fight commenced, to 
which Hawaiian legends record no parallel. Using 
their long spears and javelins with marvellous skill 
and dexterity and killing a prodigious number of 
their enemies, the eight champions broke through 



124 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

the circle of spears that surrounded them. But 
Makaioulu, though a good fighter, was a bad run- 
ner, on account of his short bow legs, and he was 
overtaken by Kauhikoakoa, a Maui chief. Makai- 
oulu was soon tripped up, secured and bound by 
Kauhikoakoa, who, swinging his captive up on his 
own shoulders, started off with him to the camp to 
have him sacrificed as the first victim of the war. 
This affair took place on the bank of the Punaluu 
taro-patch, near the cocoanut grove of Kuakuaaka. 
Makaioulu, thus hoisted on the back of his captor, 
caught sight of his friend Pupuka and called out to 
him to throw his spear straight at the navel of his 
stomach. In hope of shortening the present and 
prospective tortures of his friend, and knowing well 
what his fate would be if brought alive into the 
enemy's camp, Pupuka did as he was bidden and 
with an unerring aim. But Makaioulu, seeing the 
spear coming, threw himself with a violent effort on 
one side, and the spear went through the back of 
Kauhikoakoa. Seeing their leader fall, the Maui 
soldiers desisted from further pursuit and the eight 
champions escaped." * 

a Fornander, " Polynesian Race," II, 334. 



v i 



XII 

THE BRIEF REIGN AND TRAGIC DEATH OF 

KIWALAO 

"Then as the mountain oak or poplar tall, 
Or pine, fit mast for some great admiral, 
Nods to the ax, till, with a groaning sound, 
It sinks, and spreads its honours on the ground; 
Thus fell the king." 

WE must now go back to the affairs of the 
island of Hawaii, where the death of 
Kalaniopuu had left the royal authority 
nominally divided between Kiwalao, the son, and 
Kamehameha, the nephew, of the late king. 

It was about July, 1782, when, at the expiration 
of the customary period of mourning, Kiwalao, with 
his half-brother, Keoua Kuahuula, his uncle, Kea- 
wemauhili, and other high chiefs, prepared to bring 
the body of the dead monarch for final interment in 
the famous Hale-o-Keawe in Honaunau, South 
Kona. 

The Hale-o-Keawe, or House of Keawe, was a 
mausoleum where the bones of great chiefs had been 
deposited from the days of its builder Kanuha, a 
son of Keawe II, about the year 1690. It was built, 
says Alexander, of kauila wood, thatched with ti 
leaves and surrounded by a strong fence, with a 
paved court at either end. Numerous idols stood on 

125 



126 THE NAPOLEOH OF THE PACIFIC 

the fence at intervals all round, and twelve were set 
upon pillars arranged in a semicircle at the south- 
east end of the enclosure, before which offerings 
were formerly placed. Many other images were 
kept in the temple, some of wood, others of wicker- 
work, adorned with red feathers. Under the protec- 
tion of these divinities, the bones of Keawe and 
other ancient chiefs were deposited. They were 
wrapped up in bundles, bound with cinet made 
with cocoanut fibre, and the whole tied up with 
feathers and other ornaments. Many of these bun- 
dles, or unihipilis, may be seen to-day in the Koyal 
Mausoleum in Honolulu. 

The famous temple derived additional sanctity 
from its proximity to the great " City of Befuge," 
or puuhonua, of Honaunau, an enclosure seven 
acres in extent, 715 feet long by 404 feet wide, sur- 
rounded by a massive wall twelve feet high and fif- 
teen feet thick. Great images of wood, four feet 
apart, guarded this mighty rampart, and, under the 
protection of these divinities, any fugitive who ob- 
tained entrance might laugh the most powerful 
enemy to scorn. 

It was to this sacred spot then that Kiwalao and 
his supporters set out with the bones of Kalaniopuu. 
There is an old painting in what was formerly the 
Eoyal Palace in Honolulu which represents the 
funeral procession. Three large double canoes are 
pictured crowded with warriors and laden with all 
the things necessary for the obsequies. In one of 
the canoes the body of the dead king lies in state, 
with the haMlis and other insignia of rank beside it. 

But, while Kiwalao was thus preparing to per- 
form the last rites and acquit himself of his filial 



BKIEF EEIGN AND DEATH OF KIWALAO 127 

responsibilities, others were alert to take a more 
political view Of the situation. It has been said that 
a redistribution of crown lands took place on the 
death of every sovereign, and such a redistribution 
at the present time could hardly fail to produce a 
civil war, particularly as Kiwalao was by no means 
a strong-minded or experienced manager of men. 

There were on the western, or Kona, side of the 
island four powerful and closely allied chiefs who 
have already been mentioned as the kahus of Kame- 
hameha. These were the twin brothers, Kameeiam- 
oku and Kamanawa (reputed half-brothers of Kahe- 
kili, and therefore keenly interested in the fate 
of Kamehameha), their half-brother, Keeaumoku, 
"the evening crab" (already described in connec- 
tion with the prophecy of Keaulunioku), and Kea- 
weaheulu. These, with the veteran warrior, Keku- 
haupio, Kamehameha's military instructor, formed 
an alliance, unique in the Hawaiian annals for en- 
durance and fidelity, — an alliance which might well 
have lifted any chief, let alone a Kamehameha, to 
supreme power in the land. But it was the correct 
appreciation by these men of the character of Kame- 
hameha which cemented the bond. 

Keeaumoku had been looking out for a worthy 
leader ever since, with eager interest, he had lis- 
tened to the prediction of Keaulumoku. He had 
lived in the fortress of Kauwiki till its fall and had 
then removed to his own j)rivate estate at Kapi- 
liloa, South Kona, where he had waited impatiently 
for the birth of events from the womb of destiny. It 
was now fifteen years since he had poised spear in 
battle, or shouted his war-cry, and he longed with 
all a warrior's ardour for the excitement of the con- 



128 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

flict. And now, to all appearance, the time for 
choice had come. He must either accept Kiwalao as 
his feudal lord or find some other cause to cham- 
pion. From what he already knew of Kiwalao he 
did not anticipate in him the leader of his ideals; 
so, like the other Kona chiefs, he turned his eyes 
towards the rising star of Kaniehanieha. 

Worthy indeed of support appeared Kame- 
hameha, not only when placed in contrast with 
Kiwalao, but also as one more likely to check the 
rapacity of the uncle of Kiwalao, Keawemauhili. 
Were Kiwalao to be accepted as king, it would be 
the uncle who would rule, and so well known was 
his grasping disposition that the Kona chiefs had 
good reason to fear for the security of their own 
possessions. 

For these reasons Kekuhaupio of Keei, the great- 
est warrior of his time, was sent to Halawa to seek 
out Kamehameha and persuade him to accept the 
headship of the disaffected chiefs. 

In justice to Kamehameha the point should be 
emphasized that in this insurrection he did not him- 
self take the aggressive. He was quite content to 
stay at home building his canoes and cultivating his 
land. He did not rouse the Kona chiefs ; on the con- 
trary, they deliberately sought him out and per- 
suaded him to espouse their cause. 

The ambassadors found him, if not like another 
Cincinnatus, like another Achilles, among the 
women. Attended by his wives, he was yielding to 
the charm of the surf -board, flying backwards and 
forwards over the waves like one whose element was 
rather in the water than on the land and whose am- 
bition was in any other direction than that of war. 



BEIEF BEIGK AND DEATH OF KIWALAO 129 

But the chief became grave enough when his old 
tutor approached him and gently upbraided him for 
wasting his days in luxurious ease while his coun- 
try had so much need of his strong arm on the bat- 
tle-field and of his cool head in the council chamber. 
He might have replied that it was not his own fault 
that he had withdrawn from the envious intrigue of 
the court to the enviable seclusion of his own estate, 
but he listened attentively to the arguments of 
Kekuhaupio and as soon as he was convinced that 
the time was ripe for action he assembled his re- 
tainers and accompanied his guide back to Kaa- 
waloa. 

While Kamehameha was thus nearing the scene 
of struggle Kiwalao was, from another direction, 
approaching with the body of his father. And 
when the funeral fleet was off Honokua, the ever- 
watchful Keeaumoku went off to see the corpse and 
incidentally to learn the real destination of the pro- 
cession. Either misled by the taunt of an insolent 
guardsman, or gaining information of Kiwalao's se- 
cret design, he inferred that the real destination of 
the visitors was Kailua and that the Kona lands 
were in danger. 

With this startling suspicion, true or false, in his 
mind, he hurried back to Kekaha, whither he knew 
that Kamehameha had arrived, and told the allied 
chiefs that the corpse of Kalaniopuu had reached 
Honaunau. They soon decided upon a course of ac- 
tion and, on the experienced advice of Kekuhaupio, 
chose a position which would be as suitable for a 
battle-field as for a camping ground. Kiwalao ar- 
rived and at once went to pay his respects to Kame- 
hameha, who received him with all the respect due 



130 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

to his superior rank. But it was a strange meeting. 
Kiwalao seemed burdened with the premonition of 
coming trouble and, gazing at his host, exclaimed : 
" It is possible that we two must die. Our father 
(L e., Keaweniauhili) is pushing us on to fight. Per- 
haps only we two shall be slain. Ah, what misery 
for us both ! " 

Kamehameha, who had his own ideas as to the 
end of the conflict, could only answer evasively and 
turn the subject of conversation to the funeral cere- 
monies of the morrow. " To-morrow," he said, " we 
will come and visit the corpse of the king." So 
Kiwalao returned to his camp at Honaunau and 
Kamehameha prepared to follow. 

To those who have heard the wailing over a dead 
alii no description of the effect produced is neces- 
sary ; to those who know it not any description must 
be inadequate. Holy Writ tells of the house of 
mourning filled with the minstrels and the people 
making a noise, and Byron speaks of " the loud wul- 
wulleh " rending the air of Oriental cities, but who 
can put into words the emotion aroused by that 
blood-curdling "Auwe " of passionate barbaric grief 
which takes possession of the Hawaiian people when 
their dear ones or their great ones die till they are 
borne to their last long rest? 

This ceremonial wailing was proceeding when 
Kamehameha and his friends reached Honaunau ; 
but after a time Kiwalao, according to the accepted 
program, ascended a platform outside the heiau 
and declared the will of the dead moi to the assem- 
bled chiefs. It was, as everybody had guessed, or 
rather as had already been decided at the council at 
Waipio; but it was none the less disagreeable to 



BKIEF KEIGN AND DEATH OF KIWALAO 131 

those wlio had made up their minds to be dissatis- 
fied. Only Kiwalao and Kamehameha had been re- 
membered, and to the latter only the custody of the 
war-god and the sovereignty over certain crown 
lands had been assigned. 

Keeaunioku and his party grumbled loudly: 
" Strange, very strange ! " they cried. " Why not 
have divided the land into two parts, giving three 
districts to the one and three to the other? " So 
they went on muttering that war was preferable to 
such a state of affairs as this, from which the Hilo 
and Kau chiefs would reap all the advantages while 
they became impoverished. 

But the cup was not yet full. That same evening 
Kekuhaupio and Kamehameha went along to pay a 
visit to Kiwalao to see for themselves exactly how 
matters stood. They found preparations being 
made for an awa party and, as at certain times 
these drinking parties were conducted with a great 
regard for etiquette and with much ceremony, Ke- 
kuhaupio knew that it would be possible on this 
occasion to learn in what estimation Kamehameha 
was held by the new king. Fornander quotes from 
a native historian an interesting description of the 
scene which followed : 

" On seeing the awa roots passed round to be 
chewed, Kekuhaupio says to the king, ' Pass some 
awa to this one (Kamehameha) to chew.' The king 
replied, 'What occasion is there for him to chew 
it? ' Kekuhaupio answered, ' It was so ordered by 
both of your fathers, that the son of the one should be 
the man of the other, should either of them ascend 
the throne.' The awa was passed to Kamehameha, 
who chewed and prepared it, and handed the first 



132 THE NAPOLEON OP THE PACIFIC 

bowl to the king. Instead of drinking it himself, 
however, Kiwalao passed it to a special favourite 
sitting near him. As this chief was lifting the bowl 
to his mouth to drink, Kekuhaupio indignantly 
struck the vessel out of his hand and addressed the 
king : i You are at fault, O king ; your brother has 
not prepared the awa bowl for such people, but for 
yourself alone.' Then pushing Kamehameha out 
of the house, he said, 'Let us go on board of our 
canoes and return to Keei.' ?? 

Such a deliberate lack of respect exhibited to- 
wards the guardian of the war-god, whether due to 
intentional discourtesy or mere oversight, was cer- 
tain to hasten the crisis. The chiefs on either side 
seemed to have determined upon the conflict. If 
Kamehameha on his side was being urged forward 
by the Kona faction, there were elements equally 
quarrelsome on the side of Kiwalao. Chief among 
them was Keawemauhili, the imperious uncle of 
Kiwalao, and one of the highest Jcapu chiefs then 
living. Another was Keoua Kuahuula, the king's 
half-brother, a chief of fiery temper and ambitious 
spirit. Keawemauhili took care in the redistribu- 
tion of lands to obtain sufficient to satisfy himself 
and vehemently overruled Kiwalao's disposition to 
be a little more generous in his dealings with Kame- 
hameha ; Keoua, coming rather later to the division 
of the spoil, was infuriated because he could not ob- 
tain with his share the beautiful valley of Waipio, 
which had been bequeathed by Kalaniopuu to 
Kamehameha. He too, like the Kona chiefs, thought 
it might be better to risk war, and in his ill-governed 
fury proceeded at once to kindle the flame which 
was to burn from this time onward, until years after 



BEEIF EEIGN AND DEATH OF KIWALAO 133 

it would expire amid the ashes of his own funeral 
pyre. 

Calling together his warriors, including most of 
the chiefs of the Kau district, with their retainers, 
he bade them don the panoply of war. Then, clad 
in gorgeous feather cloaks, helmets and the ivory 
clasps which were their insignia with the College of 
Heralds, he bade them follow to attack the foe. 
They went straight towards the territory of Keku- 
haupio and, arriving at Keomo, a village at no great 
distance from Keei, they proceeded to challenge a 
conflict in the most wanton way by cutting down 
the cocoanut groves. This was the signal for a war 
a Voutrance, a war of devastation, for upon the 
cocoanuts depended the livelihood of the people for 
generations, it might be, after the war was over. 

So, when Keoua's warriors fell in with some of 
Kaniehameha's people on the beach at Keei, where 
they had been bathing, it needed very little to pro- 
voke a quarrel. The result was that some of Kame- 
hameha's men were slain and were dragged in 
triumph by the victorious chief to the heiau at 
Honaunau, to be the first sacrifices in the campaign 
now made inevitable. 

Had Kiwalao taken care to show his displeasure 
at this mad raid of his brother Keoua, the crisis 
might still have been safely passed, but unfortu- 
nately he allowed himself to be dragged into the 
struggle by himself sacrificing the bodies of the vic- 
tims and so making it appear that he took upon 
himself full responsibility for his brother's action. 

There remained therefore nothing but to gather 
the clans on either side and try conclusions as 
speedily as possible. On the one side was Kiwalao 



134 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

with his uncle Keawemauhili, his half-brother 
Keoua and the chiefs of Hilo, Puna and Kau. On 
the other side were ranged in support of Kame- 
hameha, Keeaumoku, Keaweaheulu, Kamanawa, 
Kekuhaupio, and the chiefs of Kohala. 

After a few days' preliminary skirmishing, the 
two armies came face to face with one another one 
morning in July, 1782, and a battle, memorable in 
Hawaiian history as the battle of Mokuohai, was the 
result. 

The great City of Eefuge at Honaunau was 
crowded with the women and children of both 
parties who had taken sanctuary in the shrine of 
the gods from the inevitable barbarities of such a 
conflict. At the entrance to the enclosure the white 
flag waving from a spear-head proclaimed the in- 
violable character of the place. There was no need 
to close the gates, for the priests stood ready to 
slay any rash intruder who should violate the 
sacredness of the retreat. Even were the king him- 
self the pursuer, the meanest fugitive was safe. 

But outside raged a most sanguinary contest, 
with varying result, for no less than seven days. 
The troops of Kiwalao struggled in mortal combat 
with those of Keeaumoku. For a while victory 
seemed to be smiling upon the king. For not only 
were the two Kona chiefs repulsed with loss but 
precious human victims were secured wherewith to 
gratify the appetites and insure the favour of the 
gods. 

But where all this time was Xamehameha with 
his war-god Kaili? 'Not blenching from the fray, 
assuredly, but rather preparing for it as a re- 
ligiously minded Hawaiian was wont to do, by con- 



BEIEF EEIG1ST AND DEATH OF KIWALAO 135 

suiting the auguries and by offering sacrifices to the 
divinities. While the Kona chiefs were apparently 
being driven back, Kamehameha, in his char- 
acteristically leisurely fashion, was staying behind 
at Kealakekua with the old high priest Holae and 
his daughter Pine, the wife of Kekuhaupio. Still, 
though for a time willing to play the part of Moses 
on Mount Hor, supplicating the aid of the gods, 
Kamehameha was none the less eager to play the 
part of Joshua in directing the battle from the field, 
and just when the fight was going hard with the 
rebel chiefs, on the morning of the eighth day, 
Kamehameha came rushing to the assistance of the 
cause. The effect was instantly perceptible. That 
martial presence and personality seemed as by some 
subtle magnetism to multiply the number of the 
contending warriors and inspire the wearied with 
renewed ardour and courage. 

Yet, after all, the ensuing victory was not to be 
won solely, or even principally, through the prowess 
of Kamehameha, but as the achievement of another 
warrior who, not having drunk of the strong wine 
of battle for many years, now revelled in it as 
though he were the bloody spirit of the battle in 
person. This was Keeaumoku, who literally ex- 
ulted in the fray, his spear drinking blood at every 
thrust, and his shout echoing far and loud over the 
field of combat. 

At a critical moment Keeaumoku met with an 
accident which seemed to proclaim that his return 
to the battle-field was to be but brief. The lava 
slopes, as modern travellers know only too well, are 
slippery enough even when one walks or rides with 
careful and sober gait ; so it is no great marvel that, 



136 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

carried away by his ardour, Keeaumoku lost his 
footing, fell, and got his pololo, or long spear, en- 
tangled in the rocks. Immediately, as the dogs 
fasten upon the fallen stag, a crowd of warriors 
surrounded him with their weapons. Kahai and 
Nuhi were at him with their daggers. Kini struck 
him in the back with his spear and, in mocking 
allusion to his victim's name, cried in savage 
triumph, " The spear has struck the yellow-backed 
crab ! " Then Kiwalao came up, most unfortu- 
nately for his own cause, and postponed the final 
blow by bidding the soldiers take off Keeaumoku's 
ivory palaoa, and in no wise stain it with blood. 
The king's punctilious etiquette saved the prostrate 
chief his life, for Keeaumoku, recovering from his 
swoon, made a sudden spring at Kiwalao as he was 
bending over him, grasped him round the neck, or, 
according to some, by his long flowing hair, and 
held him down. 

In another instant Keeaumoku's brother Kama- 
nawa, who more or less continuously had served as 
a kind of guardian angel, came swooping down with 
a division of his men to rescue at least his brother's 
corpse. Happily, they did more than this, for, not 
only were they enabled to drive off the assailants of 
the still living Keeaumoku, but one of the warriors, 
Kekuawahine by name, discharged a stone from his 
sling which smote Kiwalao on the forehead and 
stunned him. Apparently, no one up to this time 
had recognized the king, but Keeaumoku, who a 
few seconds before had given himself up for lost, 
marked the fortunate blow and, drawing his dagger 
of shark's teeth, ruthlessly cut the throat of the 
unconscious monarch. This is the account of the 



BBIEF KEIGN AND DEATH OF KIWALAO 137 

death, of Kiwalao as generally received, but it is 
fair to say that other traditions describe the king as 
speared by a warrior named Nalimaelua. 

As soon as the king's death was perceived there 
was a pell-mell rout of the royal forces, each man 
endeavouring to save himself as best he could. 
Some jumped into the sea and swam to the canoes ; 
others fled to the mountains and hid themselves in 
caves. Keoua, who had been wounded in the thigh 
and compelled to quit the field of battle, fled to the 
canoes and made his way to Kau, where he was 
immediately acknowledged by the chiefs of the 
party as the lawful successor of his brother. Other 
chiefs got safely across the mountains and through 
the forests to Hilo, while the most powerful chief 
of all, Keawemauhili, fell into the hands of the 
victors. In this predicament the only fate he could 
anticipate was to provide a sacrifice to the war-god, 
but the elevation of his rank was such that it 
weighed even with his captors. He was an alii- 
niaupio, i. e., the issue of a marriage between 
brother and sister for two successive generations, 
and therefore one of the very highest kapu chiefs 
known to the heralds. This fact probably relaxed 
the vigilance of his guards, so that Keawemauhili 
was able to make his escape and in course of time 
made his way into his own territory at Hilo. Here 
he followed the example of Keoua and proclaimed 
himself the successor of the ill-fated Kiwalao. 

Kamehameha, before the evening of this decisive 
combat, reached Honaunau, the former residence of 
the conquered chiefs. In after years he rightly re- 
garded this battle as that which laid the founda- 
tions of his fortune. For many years after, cairns 



138 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

of stone might have been observed which had been 
raised over the bones of the slain, and among the 
spots pointed ont was the place where Xaili, the 
war-god, surrounded by the priests, surveyed the 
carnage, the place where Kamehameha, his sisters 
and friends, fought together from morn till noon 
on that terrible eighth day of battle, and the place 
where Kiwalao was slain. 

Unfortunately, decisive as the battle was in re- 
spect to the claims of Kiwalao, it neither decided 
the sovereignty of the island, nor gave supremacy 
to the Kona chiefs. Its immediate result was to 
split up Hawaii into three separate and rival fac- 
tions and to initiate a long and bloody triangular 
contest. 



XIII 

"THE BITTER WAR" 

"Now for the bare-pick' d bone of majesty 
Doth dogged war bristle his angry crest, 
And snarleth in the gentle eyes of peace. 



fj 



IT is now necessary that we take into considera- 
tion the legitimate position and claims of each 
of these aspirants to royalty. We shall so be 
able to view the events of the next few years with 
fair and unprejudiced eyes. 

In the first place, with regard to Kamehameha, it 
is obvious that his title was much better after the 
death of Kiwalao than before it. He had been ap- 
pointed almost joint heir with Kiwalao by Kala- 
niopuu and had nevertheless been treated with 
scant consideration by the powerful chiefs opposed 
to him. The Kona chiefs, on the other hand, felt 
that no one was so marked out by all natural and 
acquired qualifications for the leadership. He had 
won the enthusiastic attachment of Keeaumoku, 
" the Kingmaker." That chief had not recognized 
the features of his ideal lord in Kiwalao and had 
become more and more satisfied that the seer 
Keaulumoku had been pointing to Kamehameha. 
The result of the battle of Mokuohai confirmed him 
in this view and a little later when the aged prophet 
paid his third visit to the warrior any doubt he may 
have had was dispelled forever. 

139 



140 THE NAPOLEON OP THE PACIFIC 

It was at Halaula, in Kohala, that Keaulumoku 
appeared. He was very old now and his hair was 
whiter than ever, but his venerable aspect made men 
mark more carefully his words and trust his pre- 
dictions more than ever. Moreover, he had been 
for a longer space than usual silent; the gods had 
granted no new vision to his aged eyes, no answer 
to his fervent prayers. 

Now at last the old spirit of prophecy had come 
back to him and, as he stood before Keeaumoku, his 
voice rose like the wind sweeping through the moun- 
tain gorges and he sang the chant of Hau-i-Kalani. 
He told of the civil war about to rage, he described 
the miseries of the contending factions, but pro- 
claimed that finally Kamehameha would crown his 
struggles with success and reign, the greatest of 
Hawaiian heroes, the overlord of the Eight Islands. 

There was great enthusiasm at this announce- 
ment and those who had waited long for Kameha- 
meha to show the stuff of which he was made were 
filled with encouragement. 

Keeaumoku was especially jubilant and cried, 
" You would not answer my question before ; tell me, 
O seer, is it answered now? " And the bard re- 
plied, " It is answered." That night the two feasted 
together, the warrior and the prophet, and, what- 
ever may have passed between them, Keeaumoku 
came awav confident in the wisdom of his alle- 
giance. Often and often after this, when Kame- 
hameha was downcast and discouraged by defeat, 
Keeaumoku would only smile and say, " Thus far 
you have only skirmished with your enemies; you 
will win when you fight real battles." 

Kamehameha had therefore on his side abundant 



"THE BITTEE WAB" 141 

enthusiasm and the loyalty of most of the chiefs of 
Kona, Kohala and a portion of Hamakua. 

Now let ns turn to the position and prospects of 
Keoua Kuahuula, the half-brother of the dead 
Kiwalao. As the son of Kalaniopuu and of the 
high chiefess Kanekapolei, he looked down upon 
Kamehameha as a low born rebel. His niece 
Keopuolani he acknowledged as his superior in 
rank, and to her, if called upon, he was ready to 
swear homage, but to Kamehameha it was impos- 
sible that he should submit. 

Moreover, he was young, adventurous and an able 
warrior, and believed implicitly that with the help 
of his uncle, Keawemauhili, he would be able to 
wage war with success. The chiefs and people of 
Kau were heartily on his side and he had beside the 
help of his two warlike brothers, Keoua Peeale and 
Kaoleioku. 

In the third place there is the position of Keawe- 
mauhili to be considered. His attitude was that 
of the most decided hostility towards Kamehameha 
and of independent friendship towards Keoua. It 
is not surprising that Keawemauhili refused al- 
legiance to Kamehameha. As the highest chief in 
rank then living in Hawaii, except the above-men- 
tioned daughter of Kiwalao, Keopuolani, it would 
have been cowardice and treason from his point of 
view to bend the knee before the stalwart chief of 
Halawa. Kamehameha was, furthermore, in his 
eyes a rebel against the authority of Kiwalao and 
now remained a rebel against Keoua and himself. 

Thus the battle of Mokuohai brought with it the 
prospect of anything but peace. In anticipation of 
trouble the infant princess Keopuolani was carried 



142 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

away by her mother and grandmother into Maui 
and the rival chiefs prepared themselves once more 
for the ordeal of war. 

Well did the war which followed the death of 
Kiwalao deserve the name of Kaua awa, " The 
Bitter War" for so intense was the animosity 
aronsed that all chivalry was forgotten and the 
foulest and most scurrilous abuse was bandied 
about between court and court, each faction en- 
deavouring to surpass the other in the bitterness 
and personality of its invective. However, in course 
of time matters got beyond hard words. Kame- 
hameha was master of nearly the whole leeward 
side of the island and it was the fame of his prowess 
which induced Kahekili to send him a request for 
canoes and men to aid in the war with Oahu. A 
like request was sent to Keawemauhili, but the two 
chiefs treated the message in characteristically dif- 
ferent ways. Kamehameha responded that he had 
work enough to do in the subjugation of the chiefs 
of Hilo and Kau and at the same time pressed the 
messengers into his own service. Keawemauhili, 
possibly with more prudence, sent a number of 
warriors to assist the king of Maui, and was in time 
repaid by the receipt of a strong force of Kahe- 
kili's retainers to assist in the struggle against 
Kamehameha. 

Meanwhile, warlike preparations were proceed- 
ing all over Hawaii and but the faintest of sparks 
was necessary to kindle the flames of war. The 
spark was soon forthcoming, this time the result of 
Kamehameha's outraged family feeling. 

In the battle of Mokuohai, among other sup- 
porters of Kiwalao, were two of Kamehanieha's 



" THE BITTER WAR " 143 

uncles, Kanekoa and Kahai. In the triple division 
of allegiance which ensued these first attached them- 
selves to the side of Keawemauhili, but after a time 
they revolted and tried the cause of Keoua. A 
short experience served to disgust them with the 
service of this second member of the triumvirate. 
Then they rebelled and a battle was fought near the 
crater of Kilauea in which Kanekoa, the elder 
uncle, was killed. Then his brother Kahai be- 
thought himself of Kamehameha as a last resort 
and, coming to him with the most abject professions 
of submission, besought protection. Kamehameha 
was moved with compassion and, mindful of the old 
days which he had spent with his brothers in Kane- 
koa's house at Waimea, resolved to avenge his 
uncle's death. 

This was the immediate cause of the expedition 
known as Kama-ino, so called on account of the rain 
and severe cold from which the troops suffered in 
crossing the mountains. Kamehameha assembled 
his war-canoes and forces at Kawaihae, and there 
determined upon a double operation by land and 
sea. Placing the canoes under the command of 
Keeaumoku, he ordered them to proceed along the 
coast and hover about the neighbourhood of Hilo, 
while he marched inland with the army towards the 
Kilauea volcano. In this way he hoped to keep 
apart the forces of Keoua and Keawemauhili, en- 
gage them separately, defeat them, and then pro- 
ceed to his canoes at Hilo. 

The campaign was well planned, but Kame- 
hameha suffered more than he had anticipated from 
the long and painful march across the mountains. 
This greatly reduced his available army and when 



144 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

he came upon the troops of Keawemauhili, rein- 
forced by the Maui mercenaries, though he per- 
formed as usual prodigies of valour and with char- 
acteristic stubbornness held his own, yet in the end 
he was completely outfought. It would have gone 
hard with him, and his story have been abruptly 
closed, but for the timely presence of the canoes. 
In these the defeated warriors found a welcome 
refuge and a rallying point for further and more 
fortunate exploits'. 

It was, nevertheless, for Kamehameha a very 
narrow escape. Towards the end of the battle he 
was pursued by a soldier named Moo, who followed 
close behind with taunts, crying, " Tarry, O my 
lord, don't be in such a hurry ! It is only I." The 
chief, however, did not tarry and was glad to get 
safe to his boats. One of Kamehameha's brothers 
also had in this disastrous campaign an equally nar- 
row escape. 

Still, once in the canoes, the army was safe and, 
retiring on Laupahoehoe, Kamehameha began plans 
for fresh adventures. While here he learned with 
pleasure that Keawemauhili had lost the assistance 
of the Maui warriors whom Kahekili had loaned. 
It is an interesting illustration of the strange cus- 
tom of the time that, although the war had been 
waged with unprecedented bitterness, yet Kahana- 
wai and his men called upon Kamehameha on terms 
of perfect friendliness and were received by their 
late antagonists with the utmost cordiality. 

It is strange to find mingled with such evidences 
of chivalry incidents which exhibit only the vulgar 
spirit of the common freebooter and marauder. 
For, in Kamehameha's hatred of Keawemauhili, he 



"THE BITTER WAR" 145 

certainly availed himself, when the fit was on him, 
of any and every means of annoying and harassing 
his powerful foe. Occasionally these raids were at- 
tended with no little risk, a fact which in part re- 
deems their rather sordid character. 

On one occasion with his own war-canoe and crew 
alone, unattended by a single one of his counsellors, 
he made a plundering excursion along the Puna 
coast. Here he fell in with a band of fishermen 
and, knowing them to be the subjects of Keawemau- 
hili, did not disdain to attack them. No more ideal 
picture of peace could be imagined than such a 
village as Kapoho with the dusky fishermen lazily 
plying their craft. There were the purple moun- 
tains in the background still asleep under the morn- 
ing shadows which hung among the groves of kukui 
and Icou. There was the surf on the white reef idly 
playing with the branching coral, while the blue- 
green waters of the Pacific slumbered under the 
long, level rays of the awaking sun. Then, suddenly 
sweeping round the headland of Kumukahi, there 
bore down upon the fishermen the great war-canoe 
of Kamehameha, painted red from stem to stern, 
and alive with rowers in their feather cloaks of red 
and yellow which gleamed in the sun. Instantly, 
as when the cry of "Mao!" (Shark) is raised 
among the swimmers, there was a pilipili scramble 
of the fishermen to the shore and the fight began. 
It seemed a mean advantage to take on the fisher- 
folk, but they gave Kamehameha a hot reception, 
and while engaged with two sturdy fellows the 
chief's foot slipped and he fell in a crevice of the 
coral rock. In this humiliating situation he was 
well beaten over the head with a paddle and might 



146 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

have been killed had not one of his antagonists been 
encumbered with a child upon his back. Had the 
men known the name of their assailant, it is hard to 
say whether they would have been the more awed 
by his reputation as a warrior or the more deter- 
mined to make a sure end of his career. As it was, 
the beaten chief, with a violent effort, got away and 
escaped to Laupahoehoe, a sore and, let us hope, 
a wiser man. We might say, certainly a wiser man, 
for he never forgot the fishermen of Kapoho. Long 
years after, when he was king of all the archipelago, 
Kamehameha was making a triumphal progress 
through the islands and came upon the hero of that 
day's escapade. While the fisherman trembled at 
the recognition and lay at the conqueror's feet in 
expectation of some dire punishment, Kamehameha 
was generous and just enough to praise the act of 
Napoho and the fisher-folk of Puna. And the next 
day he promulgated the law known as Mamalahoe, 
" The Law of the Splintered Paddle," — by which it 
was decreed that any chief who should henceforth 
engage in a raid upon unarmed and helpless people 
should be surely put to death. 

Thus the king proved himself worthy to rule, be- 
cause strong enough to condemn publicly the errors 
of his past. 



XIV 

KAMEHAMEHA MARRIES KAAHUMANU 



a 



Fair lady, and most fair, 
Will you vouchsafe to teach a soldier terms 
Such as will enter at a lady's ear, 
And plead his love-suit to her gentle heart?" 

POSSIBLY that inglorious beating which 
Kamehameha received at the hands of the 
fishermen of Puna had something to do with 
an apparently diminished affection about this time 
for the arts of war. Certain it is that, leaving 
Keoua and Keawemauhili in undisturbed possession 
of the realm they had seized, Kamehameha betook 
himself and his court to Halaula in Kohala and oc- 
cupied himself honourably and usefully in peaceful 
pursuits, such as the cultivation of his ancestral 
fields. 

About the same time, one of the great pillars of 
his growing power was withdrawn by the death of 
the faithful tutor and friend, the illustrious Keku- 
haupio. This wise counsellor and brave warrior 
was mortally wounded in a spear exercise at Na- 
poopoo and died lamented, not only by his royal 
master, but by all the people of Hawaii. In the 
possession of such friends as Kekuhaupio, Kame- 
hameha was richer than as the lord of wide lands 
or as the leader of a thousand spearmen. 

And to Halaula, yet once again, came the aged 

147 



148 THE HAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

prophet Keaulumoku. For some months lie had 
lived all alone in a little hnt at Kauhola, where his 
life had been that of a hermit. He seldom spoke to 
any one and was rarely even seen. But at last, as 
though with an intuition of approaching dissolution, 
he felt the old prophetic gift return and caused the 
proclamation to be made that on the following even- 
ing he would chant his swan song, the last mele of 
his wonderful career. The people, full of anticipa- 
tion, came together in crowds and waited reverently 
silent and awestricken around his hut. Hour after 
hour they waited for his coming forth and at last 
the door opened and the old man, tremulous and 
pale, appeared. He seated himself upon a mat in 
full view of the assembly and began his chant. At 
first his voice was weak and quavering and his 
words well-nigh inaudible, but gradually the old 
fire came back into the worn socket and burned 
brighter and brighter to its dying flare. The song 
rose to a prophecy which thrilled its hearers alike 
by the weird and touching circumstances of its ut- 
terance and by the strangeness of the predictions 
it embodied. 

Keaulumoku told of many wonderful events 
shortly to come to pass. He told of the approaching 
glory and supremacy of the "Lone One/' as he hailed 
the rising star of Kamehameha; of the eventual 
eclipse of that glory in the decadence and extinc- 
tion of the dynasty ; of the coming of the haoles, or 
white men, with their mingled cargo of blessing and 
curse ; and finally of the event which still lies in 
the future, though not perhaps so very far away, 
namely, the complete wiping out of the noble race 
to which he and they belonged. 



KAMEHAMEHA MARRIES KAAHUMAJSfU 149 

It was a prophecy, all too true, of the dark 
shadows which should follow upon and half obscure 
the glory of the " Lone One's " reign. It was like a 
hint of the "twilight of the gods," the Ragnmoh 
of the Eddas, about to smother in its sable folds the 
glory of Odin and Thor and the heroes of Valhalla. 

Keaulumoku had hardly finished his dirge, for 
such ere it ended it had become, when, raising his 
hands to bless the people, he fell back dead. A 
great, prolonged "Auwe " went up from the multi- 
tude and then, very reverently, the people bore the 
dead bard to the temple of the gods. Here to the 
greatest of the old prophets of Hawaii they gave 
a Worthy burial. His last chant was long remem- 
bered, repeated from mouth to mouth, and treas- 
ured up in the hearts of men, though it spoke of 
national death following hard upon a period of na- 
tional glory. 

Other events, however, soon came to blur the sense 
of impending ill. Kamehameha still held his court 
at Kohala and was occupying himself with the pur- 
suits of peace. In 1785 he indeed so far ventured 
as to attempt a second invasion of Hilo, an expedi- 
tion known in Hawaiian history as the war of 
Hapuu, or of Laupahoehoehope. The effort, how- 
ever, ended like the former one abortively and the 
chief was soon fain to return to his agricultural 
labours, working himself as hard as any of his serfs. 
He encouraged games and athletic exercises of all 
kinds, not chiefly, it must be confessed, because of 
their effect on the social welfare of his people, but 
because, with the prophecy of Keaulumoku still 
ringing in his ears, he was desirous of developing 
in his men a physique and hardihood which would 



150 THE NAPOLEON OP THE PACIFIC 

render them more than a match for the seasoned 
warriors of Keoua and Keaweniauhili. 

He had in his mind's eye many a prolonged march 
over cold and rugged mountains, many a naval 
battle in which victory would rest with the best 
manoeuvred canoes, many a desperate foot to foot 
encounter in which fortune would favour the most 
alert and practised spearmen. So, though still in- 
disposed to hurry up the lagging feet of destiny, he 
really made the attainment of the goal the surer by 
his caution and his foresight. Swimming and 
drilling were daily occupations of the court, while 
leaping, running and wrestling were specially en- 
couraged through the annual tournaments held on 
the occasion of the Feast of Lono. 

It was at one of these annual tournaments, occa- 
sions which were bound to bring together the as- 
pirants for martial glory and the fairest maidens 
of the land, that a happy fulfillment was brought 
about to one of the early prophecies of Keaulumoku. 
In other words, the marriage was arranged between 
Kamehameha and the beautiful Kaahumanu. We 
must acknowledge that the chief was not a little 
uxorious, for from first to last he had no fewer than 
twenty wives and there were two when he wedded 
the daughter of Keeaumoku. But Kalola and 
Peleuli, by whom he had several grown-up sons, 
had lost their youth and beauty and there was noth- 
ing in the custom of the land to restrain his desire 
for a younger spouse. Kamehameha himself was 
about fifty and, as we have seen, no beauty, with 
his smileless, furrowed face and stern, savage ways ; 
but he was a prince and a favourite of fortune, so 
not yet beyond fair lady's pity. Kaahumanu, whose 



KAMEHAMEHA MAEEIES KAAHUMANU 151 

auspicious horoscope had been cast some years be- 
fore, had been born, as we saw, with a yellow feather 
in her mouth ; she had been sedulously prepared by 
a loving father and a doting mother for the position 
reserved for her by fate; and her parents had re- 
garded her as a special sign of the restored favour of 
heaven. $Tow, a girl of seventeen, Keeaumoku has ^ 
brought her to court to see the tournaments and, as 
was intended, she soon caught the eye of Kame- 
hameha who yielded to her fascination as he had 
done before in the presence of any woman. To gain 
her smile he engaged in the most reckless of con- 
tests, deeds of daring and trials of strength. In 
every one, like Lancelot under the eye of Guinevere, 
he vanquished his rival. Then, as his reward, he 
asked her of her father in marriage. As may be 
fancied, Keeaumoku readily consented, but the lady 
herself wished also to have a voice in the matter. 
There was, as we have said, little in the appearance 
of Kamehameha to attract a young girl's fancy, but 
Kaahumanu was ambitious and had great admira- 
tion for the chief in whom the prophets took an in- 
terest. Still her admiration did not destroy her 
astuteness. So she refused to be satisfied with the 
dignity of queen, unless it were also stipulated that 
her children should be considered Kamehameha's 
heirs. After some demur the chief consented, but 
as Kaahumanu remained childless, it is needless to 
discuss the sincerity of the promise. 

So, with great splendour, the marriage ceremony 
took place, or, to speak more accurately, with such 
splendour as was possible and compatible with 
Hawaiian custom. For marriage, even in the case 
of chiefs, was a very simple affair and was remark- 



152 THE KAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

able as being almost the only social function which 
was discharged without the aid of religion. Some- 
times the contracting parties simply came together 
in the presence of the people and joined noses, while 
the multitude shouted, " The chiefs are married." 
Sometimes the ceremony consisted of the throwing 
by the bridegroom of a piece of kapa, or native 
cloth, over the shoulders of the bride in the presence 
of the mutual relatives. 

Still much could be done to make a wedding in- 
teresting, for, as in most countries, there was al- 
ways a feast to celebrate the event. 

With regard to the marriage of Kaahumanu to 
Kamehameha, King Kalakaua has written as fol- 
lows : " Kaahumanu became the wife of Kame- 
hameha's heart. He loved her as well as he was 
capable of loving any woman and she was the only 
one whose indiscretions were regarded by him with 
feelings of jealousy. His other wives were not 
restricted by him to his sole attentions, and even 
the blue-blooded Keopuolani, whom he subsequently 
married, and who became the mother of his heirs to 
the throne, had a joint husband in Hoapili. But in 
the affections of Kaahumanu, Kamehameha would 
brook no joint occupant or rival. She doubtless 
sought to avail herself of the privileges of the time, 
but Kamehameha objected with a frown which 
would have meant death to another." 

Of the fair Kaahumanu's flirtations with Kaiana 
and others, of her capricious temper, and her 
sterling qualities and powers of government, and 
of the good offices of Vancouver in reconciling her 
to her husband, we shall have occasion to speak 
hereafter. She becomes later a very conspicuous 



KAMEHAMEHA MABBIES KAAHUMABTU 153 

feature in the history. Although she shared Kame- 
hameha's affections with so many others, she easily 
maintained her ascendency. Beaten sometimes by 
her irate spouse, she yet knew how to hold her own. 
Though making an attempt now and then to escape 
her fetter, she always gained forgiveness in the end. 
So she lived to become a prominent figure in the 
^abolition of the kapus which followed her husband's 
death and to become by baptism in 1825 " Kaahu- 
manu hou" " the new Kaahuinanu." In the chas- 
tened and devout Christian woman who signed her- 
self " Elizabeth " there is certainly little enough to 
remind us of the brilliant and erratic princess of 
the yellow feather. 

Much of this belongs to the future; here we can 
simply cry with the wedding guests, " Hoao na 
'Mi e! " "The chiefs are married," and take our 
leave of a portion of Kamehameha's career which, 
with all its promise of greatness, has been mainly a 
record of reverses and disappointments. It has at 
least sfyown us a brave man, possessing his soul in 
patience and growing strong under the hammer 
blows of adversity. Such a training could not fail, 
in due time, to command success. The due time, 
moreover, is now at last within measurable dis- 
tance. 



XV 

RENEWED WAR WITH MAUI 

"Now meeter far for martial broil, 
Firmer my limbs, and strung by toil, 
Once more . . . trust fate of arms." 

THIS brief chapter is only transitional, deal- 
ing solely with an episode of no particular 
importance in itself but needful to remem- 
ber as a stepping-stone to bigger enterprises for 
which we shall not have long to wait. 

The conquest of Maui had been to Kamehameha 
and the other Hawaiian chiefs an ever-present but 
often frustrated hope. The defeat at the battle of 
the Sand-hills had never ceased to rankle in their 
minds and they had looked forward impatiently to 
a full revenge at no distant date. Consequently, 
when Kamehameha took advantage of the lull in 
civil strife to broach the idea of an expedition to 
Maui he was not only undertaking an enterprise 
congenial to his own adventurous soul, but was also 
striking out a line of policy which could not fail to 
enhance his prestige with the populace. If the ex- 
pedition failed he would not be much worse off than 
before since defeat was by no means outside the 
circle of his experience, and should he succeed he 
could then afford to smile at the rivalry of Keoua 
and Keawemauhili. 

The position of parties in Hawaii was not suf- 

154 



RENEWED WAR WITH MAUI 165 

flciently satisfactory for Karnehameha himself to 
leave the island, so he determined to equip and send 
out the expedition to Maui under the command of 
his favourite brother Kalanimalokuloku. The op- 
portunity for sending such an expedition was a 
good one, since Kahekili was absent and still en- 
gaged in crushing the patriots of Oahu. A casus 
belli was — all too easily — found in the ambition of 
Karnehameha to repossess the old Hawaiian strong- 
hold of Hana which four or five years before had 
been captured by Kahekili. 

So Kalanimalokuloku started out under the most 
favourable auspices and for a while appeared suc- 
cessful beyond even his expectation. He met with 
the minimum of resistance from the people of the 
district and for his own part treated them so con- 
siderately, in respecting life and property, that he 
was received more like a legitimate monarch than 
an invader. He even earned from the people he 
had come to conquer the enviable soubriquet which 
stuck to him for the rest of his life of Keliimaikai, 
" the good prince." 

All this was bad news for Kalanikapule, the son 
of Kahekili, and he soon deemed it necessary to take 
measures for the expulsion of this amiable 
marauder. An army was sent under Kamohomohu, 
the younger brother of Kahekili, to attack Kelii- 
maikai. The two met to the south of Hana, near 
Kipahula, in one of those terrible gulches with 
which the slopes of Haleakala are serried. Here a 
battle raged which was contested with all the old 
stubbornness and ferocity. The Maui soldiers, up 
to this time, seem generally to have proved the 
better warriors, but the Hawaiians too had a repu- 



156 THE NAPOLEON OP THE PACIFIC 

tation to sustain and, being in the enemy's country, 
fought with the courage of desperation. However, 
though joined at Maulili by a small body of rein- 
forcements, the invaders were ultimately over- 
powered and those who were not killed were glad 
enough to regain their canoes and make the best of 
their way back to Kohala. 

Keliimaikai himself had many narrow escapes 
from being captured and owed his life, in the first 
place, to the devotion of his kahu, who hid him until 
darkness stopped the pursuit, and, secondly, to the 
good will of the country people who had been 
propitiated by his kindly policy during the invasion. 
Thus his consideration was neither misplaced nor 
wasted and in course of time he was enabled to make 
his way back to his brother's court in Halawa. It 
is characteristic of Kaniehameha's strong family 
feeling that, in spite of natural chagrin at the un- 
anticipated failure, he was better pleased with the 
safe return of his brother than grieved at the dis- 
appointment of his too sanguine expectations. 

It will strike tie reader that thus far Kame- 
hameha's success in war has been in no wise remark- 
able. If there was any luck in the matter, his bad 
luck had so far been consistently manifest. It is 
even possible for some to maintain that what Kame- 
hameha afterwards achieved was due more to his 
alliance with the white man and his use of the white 
man's weapons than to his own generalship. 

But no greater mistake could be made. It is 
true that Kamehameha, without by any means hav- 
ing the monopoly of this kind of assistance, did re- 
ceive help from the white man, but the sagacity 
which prompted him to choose John Young and 



EENEWED WAR WITH MAUI 157 

Isaac Davis for his gunners was of a piece with that 
which impelled him to keep his distinguished native 
counsellors by his side. Kamehameha was for- 
tunate, not because he availed himself of any white 
help that offered, but because his singular dis- 
crimination enabled him to choose the right kind of 
men, and to gain their complete confidence and 
respect. 

Moreover, in no department of life do we find the 
greatest of men inexperienced in the discipline of 
defeat. The man whose battles are seemingly all 
defeats may become " the undefeated that shall be." 
Kamehameha never allowed himself to be defeated 
without gaining something, some coign of vantage 
unperceived at the time, but which was destined in 
due course to add to the lustre of his fame. 

It must be borne in mind also that, in fighting 
against Kahekili, king of Maui, he was fighting 
against one who possessed the highest reputation 
among all the chiefs in the art and practice of war. 
The old king was as wily in counsel as he was for- 
midable upon the battle-field. Taciturn, cunning 
and cruel, dreadful even to look upon, with one side 
of his body tattooed nearly black and the other left 
its natural colour, he was determined that, in his 
own lifetime at least, the dominion of Maui should 
be in no man's hands but his own. And he still 
appeared vigorous enough to last a few years more. 
Though at this time not far short of eighty years 
old, and debilitated and emaciated by excessive awa 
drinking, yet such was his vigour that Captain 
Portlock this very year described him as a man of 
fifty, and seven years later Vancouver merely says 
that he must have exceeded sixty. 



158 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

To be beaten by such a man as this was in itself 
no disgrace. Indeed it seemed as though while 
Kahekili lived his supposed son could win no per- 
manent dominion, but that as soon as the cruel old 
savage was gathered to his fathers he bestowed a 
double portion of his spirit on him whom during 
life he opposed so grimly. 

So while Kahekili went on with the war in Oahu, 
slaying its king, massacring women and children, 
and leaving a hideous trophy of his success in a 
house built entirely of human bones, Kamehameha 
consoled himself over his ill-starred expedition in 
the preservation of his brother and went on making 
fresh plans for the future. 



XVI 

THE RETURN OF THE WHITE MAN 

"Trinculo, *, . . we will inherit here. — Here; 

bear my bottle!" 

FOR seven years, as we have said, no ship ven- 
tured to land a crew on the beautiful shores 
whose beauty had been tarnished by the 
murder of Cook. These seven years had now ex- 
pired, and Hawaii was once again to be introduced, 
only too completely, to the notice of the outside 
world. Four years of trade followed the futile war 
with Maui, described in the last chapter, four years 
which had a most powerful influence on the fortunes 
both of the group and of the career of Kamehameha. 

There was at this time a very considerable trade 
between China and the northwest coast of America. 
Nootka Sound, in Vancouver Island, was the gen- 
eral rendezvous of the ships engaged, and here great 
cargoes of furs were heaped together to be con- 
veyed across the Pacific to China and there dis- 
posed of in return for tea and other commodities 
suitable for the markets in England and the United 
States. 

For these ships the possession of such a half-way 
house as Hawaii was an advantage sufficient to 
make even the risk of outrage and murder worth 
incurring and now that the terror awakened by 
Cook's untimely end had died away, captains were 
not slow to avail themselves of so desirable a haven. 

Moreover, the Hawaiians, as well as the for- 

159 



160 THE NAPOLEON OP THE PACIFIC 

eigners, had learned a lesson. They were no longer 
disposed to worship strangers as visitants from an- 
other world, but neither were they so likely to slay 
them. They would regard them simply as haoles, 
whose presence might even be turned to good ac- 
count. They thought of the prodigious quantities 
of iron which these foreigners possessed and this 
thought was enough to make the dusky cheeks of the 
chiefs turn pale with desire. And not only their 
goods, but themselves, — they too might be turned to 
profit. They had certainly some useful accomplish- 
ments, such as that of slaying an enemy at a dis- 
tance by fire and smoke squirted from a gun. 

Guided by such considerations as these, Hawaiian 
feeling underwent a complete revulsion and it be- 
came in time quite fashionable for a chief to retain 
one or more of these strangers in his employ. Those 
retained were not always particularly good speci- 
mens of their race, but the lust after white men to 
act as interpreters, gunners and go-betweens in 
commercial enterprises rose to such a point that 
when none could be procured by fair means it was 
deemed quite permissible to kidnap and retain them 
by force. 

Now Kamehameha was as yet only the sovereign 
of a third part of one island, yet it is undeniable 
that a very large portion of the trade of the ensuing 
twenty-four years fell into his hands. To this 
result several causes contributed. 

First of all, Kamehameha always seems to have 
understood the haole better than his fellow-country- 
men. He had no illusions or superstitions regard- 
ing them ; at the same time he was less suspicious 
about them than most and discriminated between 



THE EETURN OF THE WHITE MAN 161 

one and another as he would have done in the 
case of men of his own race. 

In the next place, his anxiety to strengthen him- 
self for the great task which was still almost wholly 
in the future was so strong that every means by 
which he might obtain firearms and ammunition, 
and men to use them, was to be sought with dili- 
gence. 

Again, the western portion of the island, which 
formed his own kingdom, was much better suited to 
attract visitors than the heritage of Keoua and 
Keawemauhili. His district " with its splendid 
climate, its smooth sea, its regular sea-breeze, its 
commodious roadsteads, its dense population, and 
abundant food supply " was certain to be much 
more frequented than the windward parts of the 
island. 

In consequence, the lion's share of everything in- 
troduced by the white man found its way into the 
storehouses and armouries of Kamehameha. 

The first arrivals after the death of Cook were 
two British sloops of war, the King George, com- 
manded by Captain Portlock, and the Queen Char- 
lotte, under Captain Dixon. They reached Hawaii 
on May 24, 1786, two days later touched at Keala- 
kekua Bay, where their reception did not encourage 
them to remain, and then sailed for Oahu, where on 
June 3d they cast anchor at Waialae, east of Dia- 
mond Point. Both captains had been present at 
the affray which terminated Cook's life, so they 
were no strangers to the land or the people and 
indeed were well acquainted with not a few of the 
leading chiefs. 

They stayed at Waialae about four days for the 



162 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

purpose of taking in water, but the old free days of 
giving, hoping for nothing again, were gone, and on 
this occasion the water had to be bought, a sixpenny 
nail going to purchase a two-gallon calabash full of 
water. Another point in which the Hawaiians had 
changed from their old ways was also noticed by 
Captain Portlock. It was that the Oahu warriors 
were many of them armed with the iron daggers 
which Cook had made for barter with the natives. 
These daggers had, as we know, been originally 
bought by the subjects of the king of Hawaii, but 
had probably come into the hands of the soldiers 
of Kahekili in consequence of the defeat of Kelii- 
maikai described in the last chapter. 

The stay in the islands was on this occasion very 
short, for after securing a sufficient supply of water 
in Oahu, Portlock and Dixon touched for a while 
at Mihau for yams and then went on their way to 
the northwest coast of America. 

But the spell was broken and even before the 
English vessels had departed, other visitors had 
again broken the isolation of the group. These 
were two French frigates under the command of the 
famous explorer La Perouse. Ignorant of the pres- 
ence of Portlock and Dixon not so very far away, 
these ships anchored off the east coast of Maui at 
Honuaula on May 28, 1786, and, after a stay of one 
day only, during which they had a good deal of 
friendly intercourse with the natives, sailed away 
for Alaska. Bingham remarks, that "though La 
Perouse appears to have been the first foreigner 
who landed on Maui, he omitted the formality of 
taking possession for his sovereign, having doubt- 
less the common-sense principle that the mere see- 



THE RETUKN OF THE WHITE MAN 163 

ing the domain of another, or setting foot on his 
soil, does not give possession, or the least claim to 
sovereignty." 

By November Portlock and Dixon returned with 
the King George and Queen Charlotte and this 
time they made a protracted stay, wintering at the 
two ports of Waialae, in Oahu, and Waimea, in 
Kauai. During this time they occupied them- 
selves with laying in provisions, which they ob- 
tained by bartering pieces of hoop-iron. 

The next year Captain Colnett and Captain Dun- 
can came in the Prince of Wales and the Princess 
Royal; the Nootka in August of the same year 
under Lieutenant Meares ; and the next year Meares 
and Douglas, in the service of the British merchants 
of Canton, arrived in the Iphigenia and the Felice, 

The voyage of the Nootka had an important bear- 
ing on the fortune of Kamehameha r since to it 
Kaiana, " the last of the Hawaiian knights," as King 
Kalakaua calls him, owed his foreign experience 
and the foreign implements of war which he sub- 
sequently placed at the service of Kamehameha. 
He also owed to the same voyage the vanity and 
pride which alternately turned his head and trans- 
formed him from the friend and ally into the rebel 
and enemy of the first monarch of the archipelago. 

On the testimony of Captain Meares himself, 
Kaiana was a very handsome man, at least six and 
a half feet high, and of a most amiable and engag- 
ing disposition. He was in some political trouble 
at the time of the visit of the Nootka, and it was 
this which made his absence from the islands for a 
time a most desirable matter, — at least for himself. 
So he eagerly, if somewhat apprehensively, em- 






164 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

braced the opportunity to make a voyage to Canton 
with Captain Meares, and so be the first Hawaiian 
for many centuries to break the egg-shell of his little 
world, and learn the secrets of " Kahiki " and the 
wonderful realm beyond. 

Kaiana-a-Ahaula, to give him his full designa- 
tion, had heard wonderful legends of these lands 
chanted by the royal poets, he had perhaps himself 
sung the Chant of Kualii, and knew of the exist- 
ence of foreign lands as mysterious regions from 
whence had come the demigods of early Hawaiian 
story. Now he was about to find out for himself. 

And he went and availed himself so practically 
of his opportunity that in the next year, 1778, he 
returned on board the Iphigenia with a very goodly 
store of the products of " Kahiki" He had stayed 
at Canton but three months, but he came back with 
cattle, sheep, turkeys, lime and orange trees, and 
many other things less useful, such as guns and 
ammunition. Unfortunately the stock died before 
it could be landed, while the worser half of the cargo 
suffered no damage. 

Kaiana, on his return, looked about him for a 
chief whom he might advantageously serve. Kaeo, 
king of Kauai, he found was hostile, so he deter- 
mined to betake himself with his newly acquired 
treasures to Kamehameha. Indeed, Kamehameha, 
particularly keen in such transactions as this, had 
already made him an offer, and when, on December 
29, 1788, Kaiana arrived with all his possessions, 
the chiefs of Kona knew themselves strong enough 
at last to oppose all their rivals throughout the 
group. 

As was to be expected, the traveller made a great 



THE BETUEN OF THE WHITE MAN 165 

sensation among his countrymen. A man who had 
seen <s Kahihi " must necessarily have appeared 
among his fellow chiefs as Columbus appeared to 
the nobles of Spain on his return from America. 
Longfellow has told us of the fate which bef el Iagoo, 
" the great traveller and talker " in the Hiawatha 
legend, on his return 



a 



From his wanderings far to eastward, 
From the regions of the morning, 
From the shining land of Wabun 
Homeward now returned Iagoo, 
The great talker, the great boaster, 
/ Full of new and strange adventures, 

Marvels many and many wonders. 
And the people of the village 
Listened to him as he told them 
Of his marvellous adventures, 
Laughing answered him in this wise : 
1 Ugh ! It is indeed Iagoo ! 
No one else beholds such wonders ! ' ' ' 

Kaiana was not quite so badly treated as this. Yet, 
if he did not by his travels lose his reputation, his 
very superiority to his fellow chiefs in knowledge of 
the outside world proved his ruin, as in the case of 
many a better man, for it turned his head and made 
him the victim of the most ridiculous vanity. 

Still, for the present, his friendship was valuable, 
so Kamehameha, even if he did not trust him as a 
counsellor, accepted him as an ally. There must 
have been something likeable about the man, for he 
succeeded to an unusual extent in capturing the 
good graces of the white visitors. Not only did 
Meares give him his passage to China, but Captain 
Douglas of the Iphigenia brought him back, and 
when Kaiana decided to enter the service of Kame- 



166 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

hameha, brought over his wife and child and his 
brother Namakeha from Kauai. Douglas also made 
himself pleasant in the eyes of Kamehameha by pre- 
senting him with a swivel gun, mounted in a huge 
canoe, and a quantity of muskets and ammunition. 

It was a bad return for this that in July, 1789, we 
find the generous captain narrowly escaping from a 
conspiracy of the chiefs to> murder him and his crew. 
This was in Kealakekua Bay, where the bad prece- 
dent of the murder of Cook seems to have given to 
the natives a lamentable appetite for further out- 
rage. 

The truth is that since Cook's first arrival the 
cupidity of the inhabitants had been more and more 
fed by the various gifts they had obtained from the 
foreigners. Iron and weapons seemed to excite 
them beyond their wonted daring to deeds of treach- 
ery and violence, and no one who possessed these 
precious yet sinister treasures was safe, provided 
that there appeared a reasonable probability of his 
being easily disposed of. 

Thus these four peaceful years of trade, pacific so 
far as the attitude of the natives towards one an- 
other is concerned, were not years of unmixed bless- 
ing. This is proved only too clearly by the sad 
events which have now to be chronicled. 

At the end of the year 1789 there came to the 
islands an American fur trader, Captain Metcalf , in 
command of a vessel called the Eleanor. He was 
accompanied by his son, a youth of eighteen, who 
himself commanded a schooner named the Fair 
America. They came, in all probability, merely to 
winter, but, once in the group, commenced a trafiic 
between the islands of Hawaii and Maui. The two 



THE BETUKN OF THE WHITE MAN 167 

vessels, being smaller and less strongly manned 
than those to which the Hawaiians had grown ac- 
customed, were watched by some of the chiefs with 
covetous eyes. 

On one occasion a plot was formed by Kaiana and 
some kindred spirits to capture the Eleanor, but 
Kamehameha, to his credit, went on board as soon 
as he heard of the malevolent design and ordered 
the treacherous chiefs ashore. 

The longing for plunder, however, was not easily 
suppressed and, when greed was reinforced by a 
thirst for vengeance, things looked bad for the vis- 
itors. Unfortunately, Metcalf, a man of rough, 
brutal ways, was not sparing in the use of the rope's 
end upon such of the natives as excited his anger or 
suspicion. Even Kameeiamoku, the high chief and 
counsellor of Kamehameha, fell under the sea-cap- 
tain's displeasure and was brutally insulted and 
beaten. The chief left the ship with a vow to re- 
venge himself upon the Eleanor, or upon the next 
vessel which should come within his power. 

Such a desired opportunity was not long in com- 
ing. In the beginning of 1790 the Eleanor crossed 
the Hawaiian channel and went over to Maui, leav- 
ing her tender off the coast of Hawaii. She an- 
chored off Honuaula, about fifteen miles from Olu- 
walu, where Kalola, the widow of Kalaniopuu, with 
her new husband, Kaopuiki, lived. Kaopuiki pre- 
pared at once to trade with the ship in fruit and 
hogs, but, under the circumstances, robbery looked 
even sweeter than barter, and one night the chief 
and his accomplices could not resist the opportu- 
nity of cutting adrift the ship's boat, which was 
lying behind the vessel. Unhappily a sailor was in 



168 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

the boat and, to prevent Mm giving an alarm, the 
marauders slew him and cast the body into the sea. 
The boat they took away and broke up for the sake 
of the nails and iron fastenings. 

When Metcalf learned of his loss, he made a raid 
on shore and took two prisoners. From these he 
learned that the thieves had come from Oluwalu. 
Thither he repaired with his ship and waited appar- 
ently for the natives to come off to trade. This they 
most unsuspectingly did, having by this time prob- 
ably forgotten, according to their innocent custom, 
all about the theft, or imagining that by firing upon 
the people the day before Metcalf had amply re- 
venged himself for his loss. Jarves tells a story to 
the effect that the natives had already given up the 
bones of the murdered sailor, as Metcalf had de- 
manded, and that they were even anxious to come 
forward to claim a reward for the return of the 
boat. This is, for several reasons, highly improb- 
able, but Bingham is probably correct in saying 
that Metcalf offered a reward for information as to 
the fate of boat and seaman, and that a reward 
was demanded by the natives who gave the informa- 
tion. The captain replied, "You shall have it 
soon," and the people, thinking that all was now 
well, thronged around the vessel to trade. Canoes 
came from all parts, from Lanai, from Kaanapali, 
Ukumehame, and the whole neighbourhood, so that 
there was a great array of natives in the vicinity of 
the ship. It is scarcely likely that Metcalf could 
have feared mischief from them, since they were 
quite unarmed, but he deliberately kept them off 
from the waist of the ship, waited until they were 
clustered together, and then poured a terrible 



THE KETUKN OF THE WHITE MAN 169 

broadside into the midst of the canoes. A hundred 
men were killed outright and many more fell a prey 
to the sharks which infest these waters. Metcalf, 
gloating over his revenge, returned to Hawaii in 
search of his tender, and lay off and on near Keala- 
kekua Bay, expecting the Fair America to join him 
and resume their voyage. 

But the two ships were destined never more to 
sail together. The tender, whose crew consisted of 
the captain and only five men, came to Kawaihae, 
and Kameeiamoku, feeling that the gods had given 
his revenge into his own hands, at once went off 
with a fleet of canoes to make pretense of trading. 
While the young captain was off his guard, they 
seized him and threw him overboard; then they 
killed all the crew with the exception of the mate, 
Isaac Davis, whom they spared from some sudden 
impulse of pity, or, as some say, because he cried 
out " Aloha " ; then, stripping the vessel of her guns, 
hauled her up on the beach. All the guns, ammuni- 
tion, and articles for barter were taken to Kame- 
hameha, who was then at Kealakekua Bay, where 
the Eleanor was lying. Kamehameha shared in the 
spoil, being, no doubt, secretly glad to receive it. 
But he was exceedingly angry with Kameeiamoku 
and ordered that the schooner should be given over 
to him that he might restore it to its lawful owners. 
The first portion of the order was obeyed; Kame- 
hameha received the ship, but the rest was forgotten 
and the Fair America remained in the hands of the 
king. 

On March 17, 1794, Kamehameha, whose con- 
science was not at all times equally scrupulous, 
made another acquisition by detaining John Young, 



170 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

the boatswain of the Eleanor, on shore, intending to 
make him useful to himself and a companion to 
Isaac Davis. At the same time, to prevent Metcalf 
from hearing of his son's death, he laid a kapu on 
all the canoes in the bay, so that no man might dare 
put forth. So, for a couple of days, the Eleanor lay 
off and on, firing shots to assist Young's return, and 
at last, deprived of her consort, put out to sea alone 
and sailed for China. 

The two white prisoners became great historical 
figures, and the surname, Nahaolelua, — " the two 
white men''' — still to be met with among the na- 
tives, bears witness to the impression made on the 
popular imagination. Isaac Davis and John Young 
were not ordinary adventurers, but men of sterling 
character who fully repaid their captors for pre- 
serving them from death. They were treated with 
kindness and even with tenderness by Kamehameha, 
presented with ample estates, and subsequently ex- 
alted to the rank of alii. Although, for a consider- 
able time, closely watched and guarded, whenever 
any foreign ship was in sight, they proved faithful 
to their barbaric master. In council and in war 
they gave Kamehameha invaluable assistance. They 
mounted the cannon from the Iphigenia on a gun- 
carriage for land service, drilled as many soldiers 
as there were guns in the use of firearms, advised 
the king as to the tactics to be adopted for his mili- 
tary operations, and proved as fertile in plans while 
war was preparing as they were valiant in the field 
while war was in progress. 

Thus even the cruel revenge of Captain Metcalf 
upon the people of Oluwalu turned out to the ad- 
vancement of Kamehameha's designs. 



XVII 

THE BATTLE OF THE IAO VALLEY 

"They close ik clouds of smoke and dust, 
With sword sway and with lance's thrust, 
And such a yell was there, 
Of sudden and portentous birth, 
As if men fought upon the earth, 
And fiends in upper air; 
life and death were in the shout, 
Recoil and rally, charge and rout, 
And triumph and despair/' 

ALTHOUGH peace had reigned for four long 
years, or perhaps for this very reason, 
Kamehameha, who had now assumed the 
title of Moi, or king of Hawaii, was thirsting for the 
renewal of the war with Maui. With his auxiliary 
of white men and white men's weapons he could no 
longer be restrained from the great adventure which 
possessed his heart. Whatever may have been his 
personal responsibility for previous expeditions, he 
certainly must be held responsible on this occasion 
for the rekindling of the fiery torch of war. It is 
characteristic of him that he had by this time quite 
taken for granted that superiority to his brother . 
sovereigns in Hawaii which the years of traffic and 
peace had to some extent established. In illustra- 
tion of this we find him sending to his quondam 
foes, Keoua and Keawemauhili, a request for men 
and canoes with which to fight against the Maui 
chiefs. 

171 



172 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

Keoua indignantly refused, returning answer 
that lie owed no allegiance to a rebel and that in his 
opinion the meditated war was unwise and unpro- 
voked. 

Strange to say, Keawemauhili, who for some un- 
explained reason seems to have composed his feud 
with Kamehameha, acquiesced in the request and 
sent a large body of troops under the command of 
his own sons and nephew. Probably Keawemauhili 
had come to recognize the logic of facts and could 
no longer blind himself to Kamehameha's sagacity 
and poAver. Possibly also the war with Maui was 
too popular in Hawaii for him to disregard alto- 
gether the call for help. 

So at last Kamehameha had his personal oppor- 
tunity of avenging the battle of the Sand-hills and 
he determined to use it to the full. It was summer 
time when he crossed with his great host of well- 
armed and well-disciplined soldiers from Hawaii to 
Maui. The landing was made at Hana, which by 
right of long possession the Hawaiians had come to 
regard almost as their own soil. Then the army 
moved on, some by land, others by canoes, to 
Hamakua, where mementoes of the camp may still 
be seen. Here is the fortified hill of Puukoae, 
which Kamehameha attacked and captured from 
the advance guard of the Maui forces. The position 
is still known as the Kapu ai o Kamehameha, and so 
bears witness to that night's camp. Here the war- 
god Kaili was paraded round the camp in order that 
the people might judge by the more or less erect 
position of the feathers and by other signs as to 
whether the auguries were favourable for joining 
battle. With one voice the priests and prophets 



THE BATTLE OF THE IAO VALLEY 173 

bade Kamehameha advance, since the omens were 
all that could be desired. So Kamehameha deter- 
mined to give the enemy battle on the following 
morning. The advance guard of Kahekili was near 
at hand under a chief named Kapakahili, and the 
Maui warriors, according to their wont, were not 
slow to reply to Kamehameha's attack. They fought 
with all their old valour and for some time no one 
could tell what the result of the fight would be. 
Then reinforcements arrived for the Hawaiians and 
the Maui forces were pressed slowly back to Ko- 
komo. Here they made another stubborn stand. 
Kapakahili fought with desperate courage, and 
when at last he encountered Kamehameha in mid- 
field, the exhausted armies tacitly seemed to agree 
that a single combat should decide the conflict. 
And now raged a fight upon which the future his- 
tory of the group trembled in the balance. We can 
imagine the breathless interest with which chiefs 
and people regarded the two champions. Their lithe 
and sinewy bodies well-nigh naked, the two com- 
batants strove eye to eye and foot to foot, launching 
their spears, wielding their battle-clubs, watching 
for any dagger's breadth of advantage which might 
insure victory and put an end to this terrible duel. 
At length the anxious silence was broken, Kame- 
hameha's great strength and alertness prevailed 
and, with a spear through his body, the valorous 
Kapakahili fell dead. Then the panic-stricken army 
of Maui fled before the shouting and exulting con- 
querors. 

But the victory was by no means completed. The 
road to Wailuku lay open, but the main army of 
Kahekili, under his son Kalanikapule, was still 



174 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

fresh and unbeaten, and was holding a strong posi- 
tion in the Iao Valley, the burial place of many fa- 
mous chieftains. Kamehameha prepared at once to 
follow up his success and for this purpose moved his 
troops by water along the northern coast of Maui to 
Kahului harbour, from whence the sand-hills gradu- 
ally melt away in the narrowing valley wherein 
stands the beautiful village of Wailuku. It was 
here that Kalanikapule was posted with the plain 
before and the valley behind. 

The Iao Valley, alone among the valleys of Maui, 
affords a comparatively easy passage to the other 
side of the island and it is easy enough now to ride 
through it from Wailuku to Lahaina. But a panic- 
stricken army would not find it so easy, and prob- 
ably Kamehameha relied upon this not only to de- 
feat but also to annihilate the enemy. In the famous 
battle of the Sand-hills thirty years before the Ha- 
waiian army had approached from the other side; 
now they were in the better position that they re- 
tained command of the sea, while their foes were 
before them in the natural funnel formed by the 
mountains. 

The battle that ensued was one of the fiercest and 
stubbornest in Hawaiian history, — a history pro- 
lific enough in stubborn contests. The mountain- 
sides were filled with women and children and those 
too old to take part in the fight. These crowded the 
heights and looked down upon the combatants be- 
low like the spectators in some huge natural amphi- 
theatre. And all the while they uttered the most 
fearful cries and imprecations, supplications to the 
gods, threats and yells of defiance against the in- 
vaders, wailings for the wounded and the dead, and 



THE BATTLE OF THE IAO VALLEY 175 

shrieks of terror as their own peril became more 
and more imminent. 

For, meanwhile, the battle which began at Wai- 
luku was moving further and further up the valley 
to the dismay of Kalanikapule and his chiefs. But 
the spell of the tradition of Maui was broken at last 
and, added to the disheartening effect of the recent 
defeat, was the new terror imported into the battle 
by the employment of Kamehameha's newly ac- 
quired artillery. Like the English cannon at the 
battle of Crecj, the two field-pieces, under the direc- 
tion of Davis and Young, proved tremendously ef- 
fective, as much perhaps on account of their novelty 
and the thunder of their fiery mouths as on account 
of the havoc caused by shot and shell. At any rate, 
although Kalanikapule contested stubbornly every 
inch of the way, yet the rout gradually became more 
and more complete till the Hawaiian victors were 
impeded at last more by the corpses of the slain 
which choked the way than by the resistance of the 
living. 

One name by which this fearful fight became 
known in the years to come was " Kepaniwai" " the 
damming of the waters," — so great was the number 
of the dead who blocked up the channel of the Iao 
stream. 

The principal chiefs, such as Kalanikapule and 
his brothers, succeeded in crossing the mountains, 
whence they made their way to Oahu, while others, 
together with the child chiefess, Keopuolani, after- 
wards the victor's royal bride, escaped first to Olu- 
walu, and thence with the chiefess Kalola to 
Molokai. 



XVIII 

KAMEHAMEHA SENDS AMBASSADORS 



a 



Then go we in to know his embassy, 
Which I could with a ready guess declare." 

IT might be supposed that Kamehameha would 
at once have taken steps to secure his con- 
quest by placing garrisons in Maui and by 
dividing the lands among his chiefs, but his designs 
were too far-reaching to allow him to be content 
with a mere installment of success, or to beguile him 
into the belief that the task of his life was now 
achieved. He saw before him still the invasion and 
conquest of Oahu, where Kahekili remained grimly 
watching from afar the success of his reputed son, 
and he saw still more clearly that he had not only 
to gain power but, what was still more important, 
he had to gain legitimacy, and so win the loyal alle- 
giance of high chiefs like Keawemauhili. 

These two objects he now set resolutely before 
him and regarded their attainment as even more 
necessary than the retention of Maui. 

First of all he saw his opportunity of conciliating 
the representatives of the elder branch of the Keawe 
family, and so allying himself with the line of the 
dead Kiwalao. Kalola, the widow of Kalaniopuu, 
was, as we have seen, still alive, and her daughter 
Liliha and granddaughter Keopuolani were among 
the women who from the sides of the mountains 

176 



KAMEHAMEHA SENDS AMBASSADORS 177 

watched the battle in the Iao Valley. After the bat- 
tle they fled and reached Oluwalu, where Kalola 
was staying, and thence sailed for a more secure 
refuge in Molokai. Kamehameha at once sent a 
messenger, named Kikane, to make overtures on his 
behalf, and requested that they would place them- 
selves under his protection and return to Hawaii. 
Impatient to secure this point, he soon followed his 
ambassador and then learned that the aged Kalola, 
worn out with the troubles of these last years, was 
sick and at the point of death. He at once went to 
pay his respects and found her at Kalamaula. In 
the interview Kamehameha urged the dying woman 
to give him her daughter and granddaughter that 
he might provide for them according to their rank. 
The chiefess, no doubt glad to find such a strong 
friend for her children in such troublous times, 
promised that when the black kapa should cover her 
they should be his. Shortly after, Kalola died, and 
all the funeral rites customary on the decease of a 
high chief were religiously observed. Many " com- 
panions in death " were selected and slain to accom- 
pany the spirit into the under-world ; men who de- 
sired to pay special respect tattooed their flesh, and 
Kamehameha signalized his own personal grief by 
knocking out some of his front teeth. According to 
the historians he did this at so many royal funerals 
that one gets a little suspicious as to the thorough- 
goingness of the operation. 

The mourning over, the bones of Kalola were con- 
cealed at Konahele and Kamehameha took formal 
possession of Liliha and Keopuolani, as a seal of 
reconciliation with that older branch of the royal 
family whose position he had in a measure usurped. 



178 THE NAPOLEON OP THE PACIFIC 

This charge, we may be sure, very sensibly in- 
creased his prestige among the people of Hawaii. 

Subsequently a marriage took place between 
Kamehameha and Keopuolani, and it was from this 
union that the line of the dynasty was continued. 
To this wife the king never ceased to pay his re- 
spects as to one much higher in rank than himself 
and to the end of his days, in addressing her, went 
down upon his knees. 

One object of his ambition attained, Kame- 
hameha prepared to bring within his reach the 
other. To this end he despatched two messengers, 
one to Oahu to seek out the king Kahekili, and the 
other to Kauai to discover some renowned wizard or 
soothsayer. Let us see how these two envoys and 
their missions fared. The emissary to Kahekili was 
Kikane, already a trusted and experienced ambassa- 
dor. He found the king at Waikiki, and without 
more ado offered him his choice between two maika 
stones (i. e., the stones used in the game of quoits). 
One was white and the other black and, as Kahekili 
poised them in his hands, he understood their mean- 
ing and gazed upon them not altogether in anger. 
" This one," he said, touching the white stone, " rep- 
resents agriculture, fishing, husbandry, and the 
prosperity of government. And this one," denoting 
the black one, " is the symbol of war." He added, 
" Does Kamehameha want to fight with me? " The 
messenger replied that such was his master's inten- 
tion, and that he himself had been sent as a herald 
with full power to negotiate the conditions of battle 
and the choice of a landing place, so that the contest 
might be fought in a knightly and chivalrous man- 
ner as became such doughty antagonists. 



KAMEHAMEHA SENDS AMBASSADORS 179 

The old chief regarded the envoy with an expres- 
sion of amusement, in which was manifest some de- 
gree of admiration for the boldness of the challenge. 
Then he rose up and returned his answer : " Go 
back to your lord and tell him to return with his 
army to Hawaii and leave me alone. When I am 
gathered to my fathers and the funeral hog has been 
placed to my nose, then, let him know, he, the lord 
of Hawaii, shall be the mai/ca-stone that shall sweep 
the course from here to Tahiti. Then let- him take 
possession of my land." 

It was wise advice from the astute old chief, be- 
cause it served to remind Kamehameha that even 
Hawaii was not yet his own, while Keoua main- 
tained his claims. Still it leaves us at a loss to ex- 
plain why some time later Kahekili went out .of his 
way to attack Hawaii. It may be supposed, how- 
ever, that sometimes the warlike temper of the 
people had to be humoured abroad in order to pre- 
serve peace at home. Kikane had still another mis- 
sion to fulfill. This was to request from Kahekili 
the gift of the two great idols, Olupue and Kalai- 
pahoa. 

Olupue was the Mercury of Hawaii, the god who 
accompanied the spirits of the chiefs over the chill 
waters of Styx, assisted them on their journey, and 
installed them in their final resting place,— a god 
therefore to be worshipped and propitiated by war- 
riors who faced death from day to day. 

The other idol, Kalaipahoa, was the famous 
poison god of Molokai. Centuries back, says the 
legend, the poison goddess had come from an un- 
known land to the island of Molokai, and there en- 
tered a grove of trees. So virulent was the poison 



180 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

exhaled from the dwelling of the goddess that the 
birds fell dead as they flew over it. Where the grove 
stood the earth all around was black and bare. It 
breathed forth death like the upas-tree, and no liv- 
ing thing could approach with impunity. The val- 
ley, which was also the abode of Laamaomao, the 
god of the winds, was regarded by all the island 
with terror, and at last it was revealed by the god- 
dess that from this formidable wood an idol must be 
made. 

The story, as usually told, runs as follows: 
Kaneakama was a great gambler and played so 
persistently at maika that he lost everything except 
one pig. As he had dedicated this to his god, he did 
not dare to stake it, and his piety was rewarded by 
the akua appearing to him in a dream and directing 
him to play again and stake the pig. He obeyed and 
was now as successful as he had previously been un- 
lucky. To show his gratitude he went to the temple 
and there dedicated a great part of his gain. And 
that night, while he slept, the god once again ap- 
peared and bade him go to the king and tell him 
that in a certain place he would find next morning a 
clump of trees. If the king would make from one of 
these an image, the akua promised to reside within 
it and impart to it her power. As his reward, Kan- 
eakama was to become priest in her temple. 

The king heard with pleasure the information of 
Kaneakama and at once took steps to fulfill the 
commands of the goddess. He found the tree on 
Mauna Loa in Molokai and was not long in discov- 
ering its dangerous qualities. Hundreds of men 
were killed in the attempt to cut it down and it was 
only when the others made themselves masks and 



KAMEHAMEHA SENDS AMBASSADOES 181 

shields of tlie thickest kapa that they were able to 
approach. With all their labour, they were only 
able to make a single idol. This they fashioned into 
shape, using for hatchets their long pahoas, or dag- 
gers, whence the name of the god was called, Kalai- 
pahoa, or " Dagger cut." According to Mr. Ellis, it 
was a middling-sized wooden image, curiously 
carved. The arms were extended, the fingers 
spread out, the head ornamented with human hair, 
and the widely distended mouth armed with for- 
midable rows of shark's teeth. The wood, which 
was probably of some extinct species of the nioi 
tree, was so exceedingly poisonous that the least 
chip mixed with food insured death to the eater 
within twenty-four hours. The chiefs were there- 
fore most anxious to obtain possession of portions, 
however small, that they might be able at their will 
to rid themselves of obnoxious personages. 

We can well understand therefore the desire of 
Kamehameha to obtain such a trophy, not only for 
his own use, but also for his own protection. 

Kahekili, however, was not prepared all at once 
to make such a sacrifice. He sent a chip of the 
poison god by Kikane, but excused himself from 
sending the Olupue on the plea that the idol was in 
charge of the high priest and therefore out of his 
power. 

Kamehameha subsequently obtained possession 
of Kalaipahoa, and kept it always near his person, 
relying upon it almost to the extent that he relied 
upon his heirloom Kaili, the god of war. At his 
death he divided it among several of the chiefs, but 
the Queen Kaahumanu very wisely collected and 
burned every fragment upon which she could lay 



182 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

lier hands, so that its deadly work might cease for- 
ever. Notwithstanding, it is believed that there are 
still existing two small chips of this once renowned 
divinity. Let us hope that their efficacy may never 
be put to the test. 

The female messenger Haalou was more success- 
ful in her mission than Kikane. She had started for 
Kauai to seek a soothsayer, as that island was par- 
ticularly famed for its wizards. But she had no 
need to go further than Oahu, where the right man, 
Kapoukahi, a Kauai man and a relative into the 
bargain, at once presented himself. Haalou had to 
ask what it was still necessary for Kamehameha to 
do in order to obtain that supremacy in Hawaii 
from which Keoua's opposition still excluded him. 

The prophet replied at once, as many a mediaeval 
churchman might have replied to his feudal lord, 
that the king had only to build a handsome temple 
for his god, and then victory would crown his arms. 
It must be a large Tieiau, and the place designated 
was Puukohola near Kawaihae, in Hawaii, adjoin- 
ing the old temple of Maikekini. When this shall 
have been completed and consecrated, then Kaili 
would be pleased and would ensure success to his 
votary. 

So the two ambassadors, having fulfilled their 
errands, returned to Molokai, where they found 
Kamehameha waiting impatiently to take the offen- 
sive against Kahekili. He was not well pleased to 
hear the old king's answer to Kikane, but even while 
he hesitated its wisdom was vindicated by events. 
For bad news came from Hawaii, where Kame- 
hameha had left some open enemies and a few un- 
trustworthy friends. 



XIX 

THE FIRE-GODDESS DECLARES FOR 
KAMEHAMEHA 

"If e'er I felt Thee in the fighting field, 
Now, Goddess, now, Thy sacred succour yield." 

WE saw some time back that when Keawe- 
mauhili agreed to assist Kamehameha in 
his expedition against Maui, Keoua, the 
third ruling chief in Hawaii, was anything but 
pleased. He regarded it as an indication of Keawe- 
mauhili's diminishing hostility to his rival and felt 
that this was but a step from a combination of both 
against himself. 

So he took advantage of Kamehameha's absence 
and that of a considerable part of Keawemauhili's 
army to make an attack upon the Hilo chief, and the 
news which presently reached Kamehameha in 
Molokai was that Keawemauhili had been attacked, 
defeated and slain in a battle near Alae, near Hilo, 
and his possessions added to Keoua's realm in Puna 
and Kau. Elated beyond measure with this success, 
Keoua went on to invade the estates of Kame- 
hameha, and overran Hamakua, Waipio and Wai- 
mea, destroying fish-ponds and taro-patches, and 
committing all manner of barbarities. 

Such news as this was a summons to Kame- 
hameha to return at once to Hawaii, and to secure 

183 



184 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

his position there before meddling with the do- 
minions of Kahekili in Oahu and Maui. Kame- 
hameha had not sufficient confidence in Kaiana to 
leave his interests in the hands of that chief, so 
without unnecessary delay he crossed the channel 
and landed at Kawaihae. 

Keoua, taken by surprise, retreated to Paauhau 
in Hamakua, and there awaited attack. Two bloody 
battles were fought without giving either side much 
advantage, although Kamehameha was far better 
off for firearms than his opponents. In the first 
place, Kamehameha's field gun, known to the na- 
tives as Lopaka, did great execution until it was 
captured in a brilliant charge made by one of 
Keoua's chiefs. But it must be remembered that 
firearms were used in both battles on both sides. 
Keoua then fell back on Hilo and Kamehameha re- 
turned to Waipio to recruit his forces. Both chiefs 
were too much exhausted to follow up any advan- 
tage they may have gained in the preceding battles. 

It was now about November, 1790, and Keoua, 
having used the brief lull for the purpose of divid- 
ing his newly acquired lands in Hilo among his 
warriors, set out for his home in Kau. He chose 
the overland route which passed close by the great 
active crater of Kilauea, and on the way a disaster 
overtook his army which is without precedent in 
the history of Hawaii. The best account is that of 
Dibble in his History of the Sandwich Islands : 

" His (Keoua's) path led by the great volcano of 
fcilauea. There they encamped. In the night a 
terrific eruption took place, throwing out flame, cin- 
ders, and even heavy stones, to a great distance, and 
accompanied from above with intense lightning and 



THE FIBE-GODDESS 185 

heavy thunder. In the morning Keoua and his com- 
pany were afraid to proceed, and spent the day in 
trying to appease the goddess of the volcano, whom 
they supposed they had offended the day before by 
rolling stones into the crater. But, on the second 
night, and on the third night also there were simi- 
lar eruptions. On the third day they ventured to 
proceed on their journey, but had not advanced far 
before a more terrible and destructive eruption than 
any before took place; an account of which taken 
from the lips of those who were part of the company 
and present in the scene may not be an unwelcome 
digression. 

" The army of Keoua set out on their way in three 
different companies. The company in advance had 
not proceeded far before the ground began to shake 
and rock beneath their feet, and it became quite im- 
possible to stand. Soon a dense cloud of darkness 
was seen to rise out of the crater, and almost at the 
same instant the electrical effect upon the air was 
so great that the thunder began to roar in the 
heavens and the lightning to flash. It continued to 
ascend and spread abroad till the whole region was 
enveloped, and the light of day was entirely ex- 
cluded. The darkness was the more terrific, being 
made visible by an awful glare from streams of red 
and blue light variously combined that issued from 
the pit below, and being lit up at intervals by the in- 
tense flashes of lightning from above. Soon fol- 
lowed an immense volume of sand and cinders 
which were thrown in high heaven, and came down 
in a destructive shower for many miles around. 
Some few persons of the former company were 
burned to death by the sand and cinders, and others 



186 THE NAPOLEON OP THE PACIFIC 

were severely injured. All experienced a suffocat- 
ing sensation upon the lungs ? and hastened on with 
all possible speed. The new body which was nearest 
the volcano at the time of the eruption, seemed to 
suffer the least injury, and after the earthquake and 
shower of sand had passed over, hastened forward 
to escape the dangers which threatened them, and 
rejoicing in mutual congratulations that they had 
been preserved in the midst of such imminent peril. 
But what was their surprise and consternation 
when, on coming up with their comrades of the 
centre party, they discovered them all to have be- 
come corpses. Some were lying down and others 
were sitting upright, clasping with dying grasp 
their wives and children, and joining noses (the 
form of expressing affection) as in the act of taking 
a final leave. So much like life they looked that 
they at first supposed them merely at rest, and it 
was not until they had come up to them and han- 
dled them that they could detect their mistake. The 
whole party, including women and children, not one 
of them survived to relate the catastrophe which 
had befallen their comrades. The only living being 
they found was a solitary hog in company with one 
of the families which had been so suddenly bereft 
of life. In those perilous circumstances the sur- 
viving party did not even stay to bewail their fate, 
but leaving their deceased companions as they 
found them, hurried on and overtook the company 
in advance in the place of their encampment." 

In this terrible eruption Keoua lost, not only four 
hundred warriors and their families, but far more 
through the impression made upon the people that 
Kamehameha had won the favour of: Pele. The god- 



THE FIRE-GODDESS 187 

dess Pele was supposed by the people to inhabit the 
fiery caverns of Kilauea with her five brothers and 
eight sisters. They were regarded as having in an- 
cient times emigrated from Samoa and established 
their residence at Moanalua in Oahu. Thence they 
moved to Kalaupapa in Molokai, later still passed 
over to the vast crater of Haleakala in Maui, and 
finally settled in Hawaii in the Halemaumau, or 
"House of everlasting fire." Here the volcanic 
cones were said to be their houses. Here they 
amused themselves playing draughts. The roaring 
and crackling of the flaming furnaces was the music 
by which they danced, and they sported amid the 
fiery surf as the children of men played amid the 
waves along the beach. 

Pele, being a woman, was a fickle goddess, and 
had many love affairs with mortals, — intrigues, 
however, which generally proved disastrous to the 
human lover. She found her match at last in 
Kamapuaa, a demi-god, half hog and half man, who 
fought against her showers of lava and red-hot 
stones by belching forth sea-water into the craters 
and extinguishing them. Finally they married 
and the wrath of Pele grew gradually less and 
less. 

It may be judged from all this that if once the 
people believed Pele to be on the side of Kame- 
hameha their own faith in him would be vastly forti- 
fied. Could not the goddess overwhelm and destroy 
them as she had destroyed the braves of Keoua? 
Could she not devastate their fields and taro- 
patches with rivers of living fire from Mauna Loa 
to the sea? He whom Pele favoured must inevitably 
become the lord of Hawaii. 



188 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

Moreover, this special favour of Pele for Kame- 
hameha and his family was continued, so they be- 
lieved, to the very end. As late as 1882 this was 
publicly recognized, although the islanders had 
been Christian for nearly sixty years. In that year 
the town of Hilo was seriously threatened by an 
eruption. The stream of lava from Mauna Loa, 
after flowing on like a river of destruction for 
twenty-five miles, approached within a mile of the 
town and harbour of Hilo. Lava streams always 
move very leisurely, but their progress is none the 
less sure and every one expected that within a few 
days the broad, black tide would engulf their houses 
and lands. Everything had been done that seemed 
possible. Trenches were dug to divert the stream ; 
walls were raised; prayers were offered; but all 
apparently in vain. 

The sad news reached the old Princess Euth, the 
surviving sister of Kamehameha IV. She was a 
stern, ugly, reactionary old chiefess, despising, if 
not hating, the whites, though she lived among them 
in Honolulu. When she heard of the threatened 
danger, she rose up and said, " I will save the fish- 
ponds of Hilo. Pele will not refuse to listen to the 
prayer of a Kamehameha." So she chartered a 
steamer, reached Hilo with a large crowd of re- 
tainers, and soon stood facing the slowly advancing 
wall of lava. There she caused an altar to be 
erected, from which abundant sacrifices were of- 
fered to the molten mass in front. Prayers and in- 
cantations were continually said and sung until the 
chiefess deemed the work complete. Then in full 
confidence she returned to Honolulu. What was 
the result? Well, strange as it may seem, the wall 



THE FIKE^GODDESS 189 

of fire stayed in its course and " to-day its glisten- 
ing front stands like a wall around £[110.' ' 

It was a fresh proof to the Hawaiians, barely half 
emancipated from their old superstitions, that the 
fire-goddess would do anything at the desire of a 
Kamehameha. 

If such could be the belief as recently as 1882, we 
can well estimate the advantage to Kamehameha of 
Pele's friendship over a hundred years ago. It gave 
his career an impetus which carried him far on the 
road to victory. 



XX 

THE BUILDING OF THE GREAT HEIAU 



a 



Miratur molem JEneas, magalia quondam; 
Miratur portas, strepitumque, et strata viarum. 
Instant ardent es Tyrii: pars ducere muros, 
Molirique arcem, et manious subvolvere saxa." 

THE year 1791 was rendered memorable by 
the building of the great heiau of Puuko- 
hola, in accordance with the advice of the 
Kauai prophet given to Haalou. Kamehameha had 
promised to build it years before this, but had evi- 
dently been trying carnal weapons first and leaving 
spiritual means as a kind of last resource. Now it 
dawned upon him that the time had come to fulfill 
his vow. Perhaps the destruction of a division of 
Keoua's army by Pele had led him to regard the 
gods as by no means une quantite negligable, and to 
feel that a disregard of his religious obligations 
might entail even worse consequences than had be- 
fallen his rival. 

Again, he had been struggling almost continu- 
ously for nine years and had not advanced apprecia- 
ably nearer his goal. Keoua still disputed with him 
the supremacy in Hawaii ; Maui, though conquered, 
had been left in the hands of Kahekili ; and Oahu 
and Kauai were as yet far beyond his reach. And 
he was getting beyond what men generally consider 
the prime of life. 

Moreover, his campaigns in 1791 had not brought 
any very tangible result. Keoua, though of course 

190 



THE BUILDING OP THE GEEAT HEIAU 191 

weakened by his recent losses, still held the field 
with remarkable skill and tenacity. His forces were 
attacked simultaneously in Hilo and Kau. In Hilo 
he had to meet an army commanded by Keeaumoku 
in which both Young and Davis held important 
commissions, yet he held them successfully at bay. 
In Kau he had to contend with Kaiana and a numer- 
ous fleet of canoes, and although many battles were 
fought with varying result, yet in the end Kaiana, 
rash to the point of imprudence, was severely beaten 
and compelled to return crestfallen to Kona. 

So Kamehameha, as the lawful guardian of Kaili 
and the favourite of Pele, was compelled to rely for 
once more upon the grace of the divinities than 
upon the strength of his own right arm. 

It was under these circumstances that the build- 
ing of Puukohola was commenced and went briskly 
forward. 

Almost the whole population of the district was 
employed in the task. People came in relays, from 
Kona, Kohala and Hamakua, to carry stones. 
Everybody worked, the chiefs side by side with the 
lowest classes of the people. Kamehameha himself 
carried stones as diligently as any. Only one ex- 
ception was made. This was in the case of Kame- 
hameha's youngest brother, known to us already as 
Keliimaikai. When Keliimaikai took up a stone like 
the rest Kamehameha sprang forward and took 
away the stone, crying, " Hold, we must have some 
one to observe the kapu. Be thou that one ! " This 
was in order that a high chief, uncontaminated by 
manual labour, might be ready to officiate at the 
great ceremony of the dedication. 

Fornander tells us that he once conversed with an 



192 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

aged Hawaiian who had borne his part in this won- 
derful building. The old man described with great 
impressiveness the singular spectacle presented, the 
thousands of people encamped upon the mountain 
slope, taking their turn at the labour of carrying 
the stones, the imposing array of chiefs who were 
present, the wonderful order observed in regulating 
the time of feeding, recreation and work, and the 
vast number of human victims offered to the god to 
obtain favour for this or that portion of the edifice. 
The ground, said he, used to tremble beneath the 
feet of so vast a throng. 

The temple, when finished, constituted an ir- 
regular parallelogram 224 feet long by 100 feet wide ; 
the walls were twelve feet thick and from eight to 
twenty feet high, and, although built of loose stone, 
were strong and solid. On the top was a course of 
smooth stones six feet wide. Entrance was gained 
by a narrow passage between two high walls which 
led into a court paved with smooth flat stones. 
The principal idol, which was of course Kaili, the 
war-god, was placed at the south end of the en- 
closure, and around this were grouped in a semi- 
circle some of the inferior deities. In the centre 
was the anu, or oracle of wickerwork, from whence 
the priest answered the king when it was desired 
to know the will of the god. 

There is considerable difficulty in deciding 
whether the official dedication of this famous heiau 
took place at this time or whether it was delayed 
till after the death of Keoua. At any rate the 
events were close enough together to make the com- 
pletion of Pmukohola and the death of Kame- 
hameha's last rival in Hawaii remarkably coinci- 



THE BUILDING OF THE GEEAT HEIAU 193 

dent, sufficiently so, at any rate, to fulfill the proph- 
ecy of Kaj)oukahi. The performance of the king's 
vow to Kaili and the murder of Keoua brought 
Kamehameha to the undisputed sovereignty of the 
island. 

It may be interesting to give here a description of 
the ceremonial dedication of a great temple in order 
that the reader may form some idea of what fol- 
lowed upon the completion of the building of the 
Jieiau. 

The dedication of a temple was the most laborious 
of all the functions im|30sed by religion upon the 
social life of Hawaii. It required ten or more days 
for its proper observance and high priests of high 
rank to conduct different portions of the ritual. 
It demanded also the lives of not a few innocent 
victims. 

First, as a preliminary, came the ceremony of 
purification which occupied twelve days. During 
this time all the lands in the island, or the district, 
were visited by a religious procession, with prayers 
offered at the various landmarks between territory 
and territory, and the smearing of the wooden hog 
which marked the boundaries with red ochre. This 
procession was formed in front of men who bore 
white flags, followed by a priest, with his attend- 
ants, carrying a calabash of red ochre, and a man 
dressed up to personate the god. The priest was 
clothed in white Jcapa and wore a peculiar head- 
dress made of human hair. After this circuit, or 
ceremony of beating the bounds had been completed, 
there was held, on the evening before the new moon, 
a grand liturgical service in the heiau, when all the 
people were sprinkled by the priest with lustral 



194 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

waters. The sacred water was prepared with, salt 
water mingled with a little turmeric and a kind of 
moss, and the sprinkling was done with a little 
bunch of fern, like the bunch of hyssop used in 
Israel of old. 

The next part of the ceremony was the bringing 
down of the chief idol to the heiau. This was the 
occasion of another procession consisting of the 
king, the chief priests and a crowd of retainers car- 
rying the offerings for sacrifice, and leading the 
chosen human victims. The procession went first 
to the forest, where a tree had been previously 
selected from which to make the idol, and an axe 
consecrated wherewith to cut down the tree. Then 
silence was commanded, so complete that if sound 
of man or beast, bird or insect, was heard during 
the remainder of the ceremony, the omens were 
considered bad. Silence secured, the priest recited 
his prayers, to which the king responded with 
"Amama" Then a hog was slain by the king, and 
consigned to the oven, and the human victim led 
forward and sacrificed to the god, his body being 
buried at the foot of the tree. The tree was then 
cut down, deprived of its branches, and garlanded 
with lets of ieie. Then the company joined in a 
feast till it was time to reform the procession back 
to the heiau. During this recessional, the people 
were compelled to remain indoors, since it was 
death to encounter such a pageant. All fires too 
were strictly forbidden, so that it must have been 
with some suspense that the people waited for this 
strange ceremony to conclude. Uttering hideous 
yells the priests and their company passed along to 
the temple, the feather gods borne in front, the 



THE BUILDING OF THE GEEAT HEIAU 195 

chiefs carrying branches of the sacred ferns, and 
others behind bearing the newly manufactured god. 
Then with shouts and beating of drums the roughly 
hewn idol was placed on its pedestal to receive the 
worship of its votaries. 

But the ceremony was as yet far from over. 
Seven or eight days more were required and these 
included the performance of many a significant and 
tragic rite. Before the buildings within the en- 
closure could be thatched a ceremony had to be 
performed known as the kauila ceremony, from the 
name of the wood used for thatching. The whole 
population was required to take part in this. 
Seated in eight rows in the outer court, the people 
awaited the coming forth of the custodians of the 
idols, carrying their sacred charges and accom- 
panied by a man called kahoalii, who personated 
the god. Then the high priest came forth bearing 
in his hand a branch of fern or ieie, and attended 
by one carrying a skull filled with holy water. 
Prayers followed, interspersed with strange weird 
movements on the part of the image-bearers and the 
kahoalii, and accompanied by the responses of the 
congregation, who rose and seated themselves at 
intervals. 

About evening the newly hewn idol was brought 
near the altar where a fresh hole had been dug to 
receive its pedestal. In this hole was placed a 
human victim upon whose body the pedestal was 
planted and the image fixed in its place. 

The night that followed is said to have been the 
most impressive and solemn of all. Everywhere 
the priests were on the lookout for the omens and in 
every house prayers were offered that no in- 



196 THE NAPOLEON OP THE PACIFIC 

auspicious sigu should mar the critical rites to fol- 
low. Supplications were offered unceasingly be- 
fore the gods that no thunder might sound, no 
lightning cleave asunder the darkness, no noise of 
living thing, aye, or of even the surf breaking on the 
coral reef might disturb the deep silence the priests 
required for their fateful work. 

Then, between the midnight and the morning, all 
the populace gathered in breathless stillness and 
sat in the open air facing the lieiau, watching in- 
tently and regarding the least sound as a certain 
harbinger of national misfortune. In the presence 
of this great multitude the king, carrying a pig for 
sacrifice, and the high priest, clothed in white and 
with a white rod in his hand, came forth and entered 
a small house to perform what was known as the 
" Great Aha." The priest then poured forth a long 
and fervid prayer and, at its close, the king slew his 
pig with a blow and offered it to the great divinities. 
" Have you heard sound of man, or dog, or mouse, 
or fowl, or of any living thing during the cere- 
mony? " inquired the priest of the king. The king 
tapped the large drum as an answer and then they 
went outside to put the same question to the people. 
If their answer too was in the affirmative, the priest 
was able to congratulate the king and predict for 
him long life and prosperity. 

Then the people relieved the long silence by a 
mighty shout which was the more impressive from 
the preceding stillness. Village after village passed 
on the shout, till the news had travelled through 
the land that an auspicious aha had been celebrated. 

After this the ceremony still continued, but with 
increasing abandonment. For three nights the 



THE BUILDING OF THE GEEAT HEIAU 197 

houses were lighted with torches and there were 
continual chantings and liturgies, undertaken by 
the priests in relays. Then the idols were clothed 
with white Jcapa and endowed with their respective 
names ; a great sacrifice of hogs, bananas, cocoanuts 
and fish, together with many more human victims, 
was offered; and if no ulua (as the fish sought for 
were called) were caught, a man was picked out 
from the village and, with a hook through his nose, 
dragged to the temple as a substitute. 

On the last day of this prodigious celebration, 
one which must have become wearisome to all con- 
cerned, the priest of Papa, the female progenitor of 
the Hawaiian race, came to the front. Sacrifices 
were offered by the king's wives, prayers offered for 
children, and oblations presented to all the female 
divinities. Then, for the last time, the congrega- 
tion was ranged in rows and replied heartily, we 
may be sure, to the closing incantations which re- 
stored them to the liberty of civil life. 

Such were some of the salient features of the 
dedication of a large heiau, and the consecration 
of Puukohola probably followed them in detail. 
We may be certain that whatever elements of im- 
pressiveness Kamehameha could impart were there. 
At the same time there were some special features 
of which we are at present ignorant. The death 
and sacrifice of Xeoua, of which we shall treat 
presently, gave a character to the function which 
we may well wish had been absent. 

Before, however, we proceed to deal with this 
ugly episode, there is another warlike expedition to 
chronicle, in its way quite as significant for Kame- 
hameha as the death of his Hawaiian rival. 



XXI 

KAHEKILI FORGETS HIS PROMISE 

"The sea with ships, the fields with armies spread." 

T will be remembered that Kahekili bad prom- 
ised Kikane, Kamehameha's herald, that on his 
own death Kamehameha might take peaceable 
possession of Maui and Qahu. Such a promise 
would seem at least to have implied an intention on 
his own part to keep the peace, but, if such were the 
case, the intention was forgotten or overborne by 
force of circumstances. In fact, whatever Kahekili 
may have felt personally, it would have been diffi- 
cult for him to repress the desire of revenge which 
burned in the bosoms of the great Maui chiefs since 
their decisive defeat in the Iao Valley. Maui was 
not wont thus to be beaten by the Hawaiian in- 
vaders, and the chiefs were eager to wipe out the 
insult in blood. 

Then again, Kamehameha's protracted and in- 
decisive struggle with Keoua must have presented 
an almost overpowering temptation to the Maui 
warriors to humble their ancient enemy. En- 
feebled by the long and exhausting duel, Kame- 
hameha would certainly at such a time fall an easy 
prey to their revenge. 

More effective still, in all probability, was the 
persuasion of Kaeokulani, king of Kauai, and 
brother of Kahekili. Perhaps, seeing that Kahe- 

198 



KAHEKILI FOEGETS HIS PBOMISE 199 

kili's submission to Kamehameha would mean his 
own exclusion from any share in his brother's 
possessions, he determined by all means in his power 
to fan the flames of war and provoke Kahekili to 
the invasion of Hawaii. 

The negotiations and preparations for such an 
expedition took a considerable time, all the winter 
months of 1790-91 being employed by Kaeo in gath- 
ering together a force sufficient for his purpose. 
In the spring of 1791 he deemed himself ready and 
left Kauai with a large fleet of canoes, accompanied 
by his nephew Peapea, his foreign gunner, Mare 
Amara (probably an Hawaiian spelling of Murray, 
the armourer) , and a number of fierce trained dogs. 
The expedition reached Oahu in a short time and 
effected a junction with the fleet of Kahekili. 
Despite his age, the Maui king took his place at the 
head of the armada, leaving his son, Kalanikapule, 
at the head of affairs in Oahu. Then the combined 
fleets set sail for Maui. 

Here the success of the expedition was almost 
prematurely wrecked by the haughty and incon- 
siderate character of Kaeo. It would appear that 
Kahekili had in some way placed Kaeo in temporary 
charge of Maui as a reward for his alliance, and 
Kaeo proceeded to prove the reality of this new 
acquisition by dividing up the lands of Maui among 
his Kauai chiefs. Naturally, this was strongly re- 
sented by the alii of Maui, and a quarrel took place 
between the two parties which nearly led to serious 
consequences and the abandonment of the invasion. 

However, peace was made for the present between 
the chiefs and the fleets sailed on. The next land- 
ing was made at Hana, the ancient fief of Hawaii. 



200 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

Kaeo could not resist the temptation to ascend tlie 
hill of Kauwiki, once so renowned a fortress, in 
order to indulge in a little harmless bravado. 
Hurling his spear aloft into the air, he cried : " It 
was said of old that the sky comes down close at 
Hana, but I find it quite high, for I have thrown 
my spear, ' Kamoolehua/ and it did not pierce the 
sky, and I doubt if it will hit Kamehameha. But 
hearken, O Kauai, you chiefs, warriors and kins- 
men, be strong and be valiant, and we shall drink 
the water of Waipio and eat the taro of Kunaka." 

This latter part of the prediction, such as it was, 
they certainly fulfilled, for, sailing straight for 
Waipio, in Hawaii, they landed before Kamehameha 
had learned of their approach, and committed such 
barbarities that the people, accustomed as they 
were to supping full of horrors, shuddered with 
amazement and terror. The fierce warriors of 
Kauai respected neither the dwellings of the ancient 
kings nor the temples of the gods. The famous 
heiau in the valley of Waipio, known as Paakalani, 
the most sacred in the whole of Hawaii, and carry- 
ing back the memories of men for fully live hundred 
years, was ruthlessly destroyed. The sacred pave- 
ment of Liloa was torn up, the Jcapu pepper-tree 
supports of the old royal palace destroyed, and such 
wanton havoc made on every side that the people 
were firmly persuaded that the aumakuas, or family 
divinities, would speedily claim a dire revenge in 
order that the sacrilege might be wiped away. 

The revenge came speedily indeed, and the deus 
eoc machina was no other than Kamehameha with 
his canoes. The king had been at Kona, but, hear- 
ing of the invasion, he at once launched his fleet to 



KAHEKILI FOEGETS HIS PEOMISE 201 

meet and repel the foe. It is said in the native 
accounts that he had added to his ships the schooner 
Fair America, taken by Kameeiamoku from Captain 
Metcalf, but, from what Davis and Young told 
Vancouver a year or two after this it would rather 
appear that the vessel had never been used since it 
was hauled up in Kealakekua Bay. 

The two fleets met off Waimanu, in North Kohala, 
about ten miles from Waipio, and here a sanguinary 
battle was fought which is remarkable for being the 
first naval battle " fought in Hawaiian waters in 
which modern gunnery formed a conspicuous ele- 
ment of strength on either side." John Young and 
Isaac Davis handled the artillery for Kamehameha 
and Murray, the armourer, for Kaeokulani. 

The result was a signal victory for the Hawaiian 
fleet and Kaeo and Kahekili retired crestfallen to 
Maui, expecting with only too much reason a re- 
taliatory invasion. 

The battle is known by the natives as " Ke-pu- 
waha-ula-ula" " the battle of the red-mouthed gun," 
taking its name from what appeared to them the 
most striking feature of the conflict. 

The dread of invasion now cleared away, Kame- 
hameha and his counsellors began to see their way 
ahead. It was therefore all the more mortifying 
to them to feel that there was still one obstacle in 
the stubborn resistance of Keoua. How that 
obstacle was cleared away we shall see in the next 
chapter. It is a chapter every lover of the fame of 
Kamehameha would fain wish to have blotted out. 



XXII 

THE DEATH OP KEOUA 



it 



To be thus is nothing, 
But to be safely thus. — Our fears in Banquo 
Stick deep, and in his royalty of nature 
Reigns that which would be fear'd: 'tis much he dares; 
And to that dauntless temper of his mind, 
He hath a wisdom that doth guide his valour 
To act in safety." 

N*~ OT to form an untrue conception of the 
event we are about to describe, let us re- 
member two important facts. 

First, we are dealing with a people steeped to the 
lips in barbarism. It would not be fair to go 
straight from the wars of Kamehameha to the con- 
temporary wars of Napoleon for a just comparison 
of the two leaders. Yet, even under such circum- 
stances, we might find deeds of treachery enacted 
on the European stage not more excusable than the 
murder of Keoua. For a fair comparison we ought 
rather to place ourselves in the age of the Homeric 
heroes, in the camp of Greek or Trojan, and judge 
of Kamehameha's act by its accordance with the 
manners of such a time, and of a society such as 
that in which Achilles and Ulysses played their 
parts. 

Measured by such a standard, we find the 
Hawaiians singularly free from those stratagems of 

202 



THE BEAlTH OP KEOUA 203 

war which fraud and deceit suggest to the human 
mind. Even the simplest form of strategy was 
rarely practised; the combatants were only too 
eager to meet face to face like brave men and trust 
to the strength of their arms and the keenness of 
their spears. There is indeed a native Oahu legend 
which affords a curious parallel to the story of the 
Trojan horse. It tells how Kaihikapu caught an 
enormous shark off Waikiki and having stuffed it 
full of armed men sent it as a present to his brother 
Hao. While Hao was engaged in offering to the 
gods a sacrifice for the gift, the warriors issued from 
their place of concealment and slew Hao, together 
with his priests and chiefs. 

But such guile was very exceptional and the in- 
stance preserved from the misty and legendary past 
does no more than prove the rule that strategy was 
seldom employed either to disguise strength or 
weakness. This of course does not excuse the act 
of Kamehameha, but it bears witness to the almost 
unprecedented nature of the tragedy in the annals 
of Hawaii and the career of Kamehameha. 

In the second place there must be borne in mind 
the peculiarly aggravating character of the predica- 
ment in which Kamehameha was placed by the op- 
position of Keoua. The two chiefs were mutually 
implacable. The bitterest feeling ever known in 
Hawaii had been stirred up between them and be- 
tween their respective factions. Defiance in most 
venomous language was bandied to and forth and no 
settlement seemed attainable either through com- 
promise or through open warfare. 

It was under these circumstances that about the 
end of 1791, the two counsellors, Kamanawa and 



204 THE NAPOLEOE" OF THE PACIFIC 

Keaweaheulu, went from Kamehameha's court to 
seek Keoua at Kahuku in Kau. 

The important question arises, Did Kamehameha 
send them, or did they go, like the knights who slew 
Thomas a Becket, on their own guilty initiative? 
It may well be believed that Kamehameha's high 
counsellors saw clearly, as Joab did in the similar 
case of the murder of Abner, that there could be no 
real security for Kamehameha until the chief who 
was a rival both by birth and by prestige was dead. 

Still, in the light of subsequent events, it seems 
impossible to exonerate Kamehameha altogether, 
and not all the glory of the reign which began prac- 
tically from the moment of this cruel deed can wash 
away the stain from his soul. 

The ambassadors reached the royal fence around 
the abode of Keoua and put themselves completely 
in his power. It cannot be said that in carrying 
out their treacherous design they evaded the danger 
of their task. Keoua's advisers indeed urged their 
master to put the visitors to death, but the generous 
chief indignantly repudiated the advice and cried, 
"Are they not the brothers of my father ; they shall 
not die." Having thus gained a foothold in the 
king's presence, the ambassadors proceeded by 
smooth speeches to invite Keoua to accompany them 
to Kawaihae and thus put an end to the miserable 
and exhausting struggle. It had lasted nine years, 
they said, and they wished to see the two kings liv- 
ing in peace together, and, as for themselves now 
growing old, to live under them in peace. And 
Keoua answered, " I am agreed ; let us go to Kona." 

It is impossible at this distance of time altogether 
to understand the action of Keoua in this crisis. 



THE DEATH OP KEOTJA 205 

He could hardly have been deceived by the plausible 
arguments of the Kona chiefs, and he seems 
throughout to have had within him the presenti- 
ment of impending death. It is touching to read 
how the resolute warrior, who had never asked 
quarter from any foe, now bathed himself and pre- 
pared himself to die ; how he chose out those whom 
he willed to be his " companions in death," and had 
them all placed in the same canoe with himself. 
All the rest of the fleet he placed under the com- 
mand of Pauli Kaoleioku, who was a natural son of 
Kamehameha. It was as though having prepared 
himself and his chosen friends for death he de- 
signed that Kamehameha should be compelled to 
spare the rest for the sake of his own son. 

Thus Keoua decked himself out for sacrifice. It 
may be he was more tired of the wearing contest 
than he cared to confess, even to himself. Fate and 
the gods were against him and against them he did 
not dare longer to fight. The imposing figure of 
Kamehameha loomed before him as the favourite 
of Pele and Lono and Kaili. To fight against 
heroes he was nothing loth, but to fight against the 
akua was hopeless. It may be that feeling thus, 
some sudden access of magnanimity made him will- 
ing to purchase peace for Hawaii by the sacrifice of 
himself. 

So he prepared himself, as we have seen, to die, 
and went with Kamanawa and Keaweaheulu over 
the sea towards Waipio. It must nevertheless have 
been with a strong inclination to rebel against his 
unhappy destiny that Keoua stepped on the deck 
of his large double canoe. He had laid aside the 
feather cloak and other insignia of his rank and 



206 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

was attended only by the bearer of bis calabash and 
bis kahili bearer, Ubai. Then the twenty-four 
rowers bent to the oars and the fair domain of Kau, 
which he had struggled to retain ever since the 
death of the ill-starred Kiwalao, passed slowly out 
of sight. He was making his last voyage, an offer- 
ing floating out to Kaili, to bear away with him the 
curse of civil war. He may well have likened him- 
self to that white canoe, " Lono's canoe to return to 
Kahiki in," which was launched out to sea during 
the great Kaili ceremony in the Makahiki months. 

At last, when they were off Puako, there burst 
upon them the view of the coast of Kawaihae. 
Along the beach lay the great fleet of war canoes, 
many of them heavily armed with guns. Back 
from the beach inland could be seen here and there 
crowds of the veteran warriors whom Keoua had 
with success resisted. Most conspicuous of all rose 
the walls of the new heiau of Puukohola, with its 
lofty lele, or altar, waiting for the victim which was 
to quench the bloody thirst of Kaili. 

Keoua read the signs well and remarked to Kea- 
weaheulu, who was near, " It looks bad ashore ; the 
clouds are flying the wrong way." " Nay," was the 
reply, " by whom should evil come on so pleasant 
a day? " " The clouds," insisted Keoua, " have an 
ill-omened flight." 

Soon the canoes arrived at the landing at Maile- 
kini in Kawaihae. As Keoua ? s canoe approached 
he may well have been rendered more suspicious by 
the appearance of the " Kingmaker " and " King- 
slayer," Keeaumoku, who, with his armed men, 
pressed towards the boat. Further along the beach 
Keoua perceived Kamehameha and, preferring to 



THE DEATH OF KEOUA 207 

trust himself to him rather than to Keeaumoku, 
called out, " Here I am." " Bise," replied the king, 
" and come here that we may know one another." 

Keoua then leaped ashore to go to Kamehameha. 
This was Keeaumoku's opportunity. He had de- 
termined that Keoua should die, so, as he was in 
mid-air leaping from his canoe, he struck him with 
his spear. Keoua struggled hard for life, en- 
deavouring to wrest the spear from the hand of his 
adversary. But his wound was too deep and, with 
a loud cry, he fell down and expired. 

Then, under the very eyes of Kamehameha, a 
hideous slaughter commenced. All the occupants 
of the first canoe were slain with the exception of 
two, one a man who had already secretly left the 
boat, the other one who ran ashore and took 
sanctuary in the house of a priest. 

It is said that Keliimaikai, the brother of Kame- 
hameha, had pleaded hard for the life of Keoua and 
his friends and, when the second division under 
Kaoleioku arrived, insisted that the lot of the first 
should be the lot of the rest. " You have slain my 
foster-brother," he cried, " now I will kill yours." 
But Kamehameha recognized his son and stopped 
the massacre. "He shall not die," he exclaimed; 
" he is the child of my youth." So the slaughter 
ceased. 

The body of the victim thus treacherously slain 
was taken to the heiau, and there sacrificed to Kaili. 
Kapoukahi's prophecy had fulfilled itself. The 
temple was complete and the last rival of Kame- 
hameha in Hawaii was among the first victims to 
be offered on its altars. Henceforth the "lonely 
one " might proclaim himself King of Hawaii with 



208 THE NAPOLEON OP THE PACIFIC 

none to challenge his claim. One great step to- 
wards the union of the group was accomplished, 
after long struggle and delay. But, if " we admire 
the edifice whose foundations he laid " we must not 
fail to note that one of these foundations was laid 
in treachery and blood. 

Fornander is probably correct in his estimate of 
the cruel deed. He says that though it " was none 
the less a cruel wrong and a foul murder, and pos- 
terity will so designate it, it is well to bear in mind 
that the actors in that deed, while undoubtedly the 
foremost men of their age, yet were men of that age 
and of no other, swayed by its modes of thought, 
following its modes of action. But Kamehameha 
and his victim have both mouldered in dust. Nearly 
a hundred years have folded their cooling wings 
over those burning hearts. The sceptre has passed 
from the family of the former, and not a scion re- 
mains of the latter to point a finger or call out for 
vengeance. Their disputes are settled and history 
resumes its course." * 

1 Fornander, II, 331. Ellis, writing in 1827, gives an account 
more favourable to the reputation of Kamehameha. The 
natives related to him how Keoua, weary of fighting, sent to 
Kaiana and requested leave to surrender himself to Kame- 
hameha. This was granted and Keaweaheulu personally as- 
sured the fallen chief of his safety. So Kaiana and his friends 
embarked in their canoes for Kawaihae, stopping on the way 
at several points. Wherever Keoua showed himself the 
attachment of the people was demonstrated in the most 
striking way. On the morning of the third day they reached 
Kawaihae, and Mr. Ellis gives the rest of the account as 
follows: " Tamehameha, with his chiefs, was standing on the 
beach as his canoe came in sight, and, with most of the 
chiefs, intended to protect him; but Keeaumoku, a chief of the 
most sanguinary disposition, who had grappled with his 
elder brother at the battle of Keei, had determined on his 
death; and fearing that Tamehameha might frustrate his 
purpose, if the canoe were allowed to land, he waded above 



THE DEATH OF KEOUA 209 

his middle into the sea; and, regardless of the orders of 
Taraehameha, and the expostulations of the other chiefs, 
caught hold of the canoe as it approached the shore, and 
either with his pahoa, or a long knife, stabbed Keoua to the 
heart, as he sat in the stern. He also murdered seven of his 
companions and friends who came in the same canoe. In 
another canoe was Kaoreioku, his younger brother and the 
father of Pauahi, one of the wives of Rihoriho, the late 
sovereign of the islands. Tamehameha gave strict orders to 
protect it and their lives were spared. Tamehameha and 
many of the chiefs, particularly Keaveaheuru and Kamahoe, 
are reported to have regretted his death. Keeaumoku, how- 
ever, justified his horrid act by saying that if Keoua had been 
allowed to live, they should never have been secure."— Ellis, 
" Narrative of a Tour Through Hawaii," 1828. 



XXIII 

KAMEHAMEHA KING OF HAWAII 



lt 0f this small horn one feeble blast 
Would fearful odds against thee cast. 



tf 




"r\ RE we permit our history to resume its course 
the reader must pardon a brief interlude of 
summary such as may state Kamehameha's 
position at the end of 1791 with reference to the 
task he had set himself to accomplish. 

Nominally he was only in possession of the same 
degree of power as that enjoyed by Kalanikapule at 
the time of Cook's discovery. He was the lord of 
one island only. 

1 But in the popular imagination Kamehameha 
represented far more than this. He had broken the 
power of Maui, Oahu and Kauai in his wars against 
Kahekili and Kaeokulani, and every great chief 
who had prestige enough to oppose him in his de- 
signs had been ultimately slain or reduced to 
quiescence. He possessed, moreover, as no king 
had done before him, all those means, material and 
spiritual, which in the minds of the islanders con- 
stituted the certain assurance and prediction of 
success. 

He was the friend of Pele, and the fire-goddess, so 
it was believed, was always ready to pour forth her 
lava-streams and cascades of fire against his 
enemies. Thus rebellion became sacrilege. 

21Q 



KAMEHAMEHA KING OF HAWAII 211 

Again, he had charge of the ancient war-god, and 
Kaili had been made well pleased with his guardian 
by reason of the magnificent temple reared to his 
honour and by the splendid victims slain on his 
altars. 

The poison goddess, Kalaipahoa, too (or at least 
a portion of her image), had passed into the con- 
queror's hands, and, apart from the moral effect of 
possessing this, a few shavings of the idol intro- 
duced into the food of any rebellious chief would 
dispose of his disloyalty at once and forever. 

More potent even than these, at any rate in a 
practical way, were the skill and weapons of the 
white men whom Kamehameha employed and who 
had learned to trust and respect and obey him. 
Men like Davis and Young were good, sound men, 
men of courage and resource, a tower of strength 
to Kamehameha to the end of his days. 

Once again there were the great Kona chiefs who 
had first brought Kamehameha forth from his re- 
tirement and had, with marvellous patience, self- 
restraint and unselfishness, assisted him over all 
obstacles to a throne. Keeaumoku had at last 
found his ideal leader and never regretted his vow 
of loyalest allegiance. No less faithful were the 
others, Keaweaheulu, Kamanawa, and £he rest. 

Lastly, there was a famous trophy in the posses- 
sion of Kamehameha, which has hitherto been un- 
mentioned but which had its influence among the 
rest in persuading the people to acclaim him as 
their lawful king. This was the Kiha-pu, the 
famous war trumpet or magic conch of Kiha. \ It 
was a large nautilus shell of a species exceedingly 
rare in Hawaii, adorned and inlaid with the teeth 



212 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

of conquered chieftains. When the trumpet was 
blown it was believed that their groans and cries 
could be distinguished in the blast. This remark- 
able shell was first brought from Samoa in the 
twelfth century of our era, but its historical career 
began with the reign of Kiha, who governed Hawaii 
from 1415 to 1455. It played a part in innumerable 
battles and, surviving the wars of Kamehameha, 
may still be seen in the Royal Hawaiian Museum in 
Honolulu. 

The unique qualities, such as they were supposed 
to be, of the Kihapu caused it to be very eagerly 
striven after by rival chiefs. When properly blown, 
it had power over legions of genii and over the 
gods themselves. Were the canoes at sea without 
provision, the blast of the Kiha-pu would instantly 
call up Ukanipo, the shark god, to drive the flying 
fish so as to fall in the open boats. Was it neces- 
sary to replenish the water calabashes, then one 
could call by the trumpet upon Kuluiau, the god- 
dess of rain, and the rowers would have barely time 
to arrange their vessels before the rain came down 
in torrents. Was it wind that was wanted, then, in 
answer to the Kiha-pu Laamaomao, the god of 
wind, would open his calabash towards the sea and 
out would rush the mighty winds. 

Moreover, if useful in peace, much more so was 
it in time of war. The king could send forth 
strident tones which startled the ears of the enemy 
at once with challenge to the battle and with pre- 
monitions of defeat. He could make the magic 
conch give forth notes such as would summon the 
forces of the spirit world to his aid and rally his 
people from the most hopeless flight. The sound 



KAMEHAMEHA KING OF HAWAII 213 

was like the sound of breakers against the rocky 
shores of Hawaii. 

But to-day, though the horn may still be blown, 
no god responds to its despairing call. When, dur- 
ing the native insurrection of 1889, the shell conches 
sounded out so shrilly upon the air, many present 
thought of the Kiha-pu and its fabled potency. But 
Lono awoke not from his age-long sleep, and all 
signs showed that the age of the conch was past. 

Yet to Kamehameha the trophy was a talisman 
of might and in the king the Kiha-pu had a guardian 
as devoted and attached as any of his illustrious 
predecessors in the M oi-ship of Hawaii. 



XXIV 

THE VISITS OF VANCOUVER 

"The white man landed; — need the rest be told? 
The New World stretched its dusk hand to the old; 
Each was to each a marvel, and the tie 
Of wonder warm'd to better sympathy." 

KAMEHAMEHA was probably in the south- 
eastern districts of the island, dividing up 
the lands of Keoua among the chiefs, when 
an event took place only second in importance to 
the discovery of the group by Cook. This was the 
arrival of the famous English navigator Captain 
Vancouver, in command of the Discovery and her 
armed tender the Chatham. The visit of Vancouver 
forms a bright spot in the records of Hawaiian in- 
tercourse with the outer world. Too often the 
ships of the white man came only for plunder and 
the gratification of animal passion. Vancouver, on 
the contrary, did everything possible to check the 
tide of evil, calm the sea of anarchy and strife, and 
build up a solid bulwark of friendship upon which 
the two races might safely rely. Indeed, whether 
we seek our knowledge from the volumes written by 
the great sailor himself, or whether we seek it from 
the still living traditions of his visits, we find Van- 
couver standing out as a noble example of the 
philanthropic sailor and explorer who realizes that 
civilization has a mission not to destroy but to save. 
For it was a time when it was commonly said 

214 



THE VISITS OF VANCOUVEK 215 

" there is no God this side of Cape Horn," — a time 
which would have satisfied Kipling's " Tommy At- 
kins " who sighed for a place 

" where the best is like the worst, 
Where there ar'n't no Ten Commandments, an' a 
man can raise a thirst, ' ' 

— a time when the mission of civilization was not 
too scrupulously borne in mind by the whaler and 
trader. 

Consequently, it is all the more noticeable that 
while Cook is regarded by native sentiment as the 
harbinger of depopulation, disease and death, Van- 
couver's memory is universally respected. " His 
memory," says one historian, " is gratefully cher- 
ished by the natives, for his mission was one of 
peace and broad benevolence." " The three visits of 
Vancouver," says another, " form an era in the his- 
tory of the islands, and his name is justly cherished 
as that of a wise and generous benefactor to the 
Hawaiian people." 

Vancouver had been with Cook in his last and ill- 
fated voyage, and so had made some advance in the 
knowledge of the Hawaiians. A remarkable incident 
is told to show how well he was remembered. In the 
visit of 1793 he was approached by the chief Kaeo 
with the reminder that on the fatal visit of 1778 the 
two men had exchanged locks of hair as pledges of 
friendship. Subsequent conversation showed that 
all those fifteen years of absence the chief had care- 
fully treasured the memory of the white man's affec- 
tion. It is a good instance of the way in which from 
the first Vancouver captured the hearts of the 
islanders. 



216 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

The English ships had been sent to receive the 
cession of Nootka Sound from the Spaniards, and to 
survey the northwest coast of North America. 
After accomplishing this, they sailed south and ar- 
rived off the Kona coast of Hawaii at the beginning 
of March, 1792. 

Kamehameha, as we have said, was absent, but 
Kaiana was nothing loth to play the part of host for 
a while, and indeed would fain have displaced 
Kamehameha altogether in the minds of the vis- 
itors. He paid a formal visit to the ships, and with 
almost all the English he knew (for, in spite of his 
voyage to Canton and back, his linguistic progress 
had been but slow) begged for those treasures 
so dear to the heart of the savage, — guns and pow- 
der. 

But Vancouver, wiser than his predecessors, re- 
fused resolutely to give firearms. " The ship," he 
said, " belonged to King George, and the arms and 
ammunition were all tabu to the king." Instead of 
such dangerous toys he distributed large quantities 
of orange-trees, grape vines, and garden seeds, 
which, however, they did not welcome so readily. 
The one thing which connected itself in the native 
mind with this first visit of Vancouver was this re- 
fusal to give away firearms. They could not under- 
stand his motive and in consequence treated him 
with some coolness. 

About live days after their arrival, the British 
ships went north to Oahu, and on arriving at Wai- 
kiki, learned for the first time of island politics. 
The Oahu chiefs, Kahekili and Kaeo, were, they 
found, busily engaged in Maui preparing for what 
they justly deemed inevitable, a retaliatory invasion 



THE VISITS OF VANCOUVER 217 

of their dominions by Kamehanieha. Vancouver 
was saddened to find prevailing so warlike a mania, 
saddened to note on every hand the insatiable crav- 
ing for implements of destruction, but still more 
grieved to mark the terrible depopulation which he 
recognized as the harvest of those seeds of vice 
planted fifteen or sixteen years before. It is to his 
credit that so far as was possible he kept himself 
dissociated from the one evil and the other. He did 
not pander to the lust for iron; he did not do any- 
thing which might spread the deadly scourge which 
was the result of vice. 

Pursuing his journey north, Vancouver made a 
week's stay at Kauai, and here made the acquaint- 
ance of a young chief who afterwards played an im- 
portant part in Hawaiian history, Kaumualii, the 
son of Kaeo. He was only twelve years old at this 
time, but was already accustoming himself to war- 
like exercises, though the responsible regent in the 
absence of Kaeo was a chief named Inamoo. The 
young prince went about everywhere attended by a 
guard of thirty men who were armed with iron dag- 
gers and bore amongst them thirteen muskets tied 
up in three bundles, together with calabashes of 
powder and shot. 

After staying a week the squadron went on its 
way to Nootka Sound. 

It was during the interval between Vancouver's 
first and second visits that a deplorable event oc- 
curred which left a deep stain upon the character of 
the natives and had marked influence on the subse- 
quent course of the story. This was the murder of 
Lieutenant Hergest and Mr. Gooch of the Daedalus, 
2l store ship belonging to Vancouver's squadron 



218 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

which, arrived in the islands May 7, 1792, and an- 
chored off Waimea, Oahu. While lying off this 
roadstead, a boat's crew was sent ashore, accom- 
panied by Hergest and Gooch, to procure water. 
Here a lawless band had established itself under 
Koi, a chief who had taken part in the late unsuc- 
cessful invasion of Hawaii. Whether Kahekili and 
Kaeo had anything to do with the outrage that fol- 
lowed is doubtful. Vancouver certainly acquitted 
them of all complicity, and there is no evidence to 
show that Koi was other than the leader of a band 
of ruffians who in that time of martial madness had 
determined by fair means or foul to possess fire- 
arms. Yet it must be acknowledged that Kahekili 
and Kaeo had allowed it to be understood by the 
subordinate chiefs that though no attacks on for- 
eign ships could be countenanced which were likely 
to be unsuccessful, or which, even if successful, 
might be found out and punished, yet to seize arms, 
under safe and secret circumstances, was not only 
no crime but even a high service rendered to the 
state. In fact, to the eyes of the king of Maui, KoFs 
real crime was his ultimate lack of success. 

The watering party landed with eight men, but 
returned with only five, and the sad news was that 
the commander and astronomer and one of the men 
had been seized and slain. The last seen of the un- 
fortunate Hergest and Gooch was amid a crowd of 
natives who were stripping them and driving them 
into the interior. The next day information was 
obtained that they had been slain and their bodies 
divided among seven of the chiefs. 

The means of punishing the murder were not then 
at hand, so the Daedalus sailed away to join Van- 



THE VISITS OP VANCOUVER 219 

couver at ISTootka Sound. The sad affair, says For- 
nander, was a tragedy " which, although entirely 
unprovoked by the foreigners, has not received a 
moiety of the sympathy and comments from the 
civilized world which have shed such a halo over the 
memory of Cook. " The natives freely admit that, 
in this case, they were in the wrong, and accepted as 
just the punishment subsequently inflicted by Van- 
couver. The only excuse that can be urged is that 
the affair was the work of an irresponsible crew of 
ruffians who were too eager to secure material for 
the approaching war with Kamehameha to consider 
the consequences of their misdeed. 

At all events Kamehameha is entirely free from 
the least suspicion of any connivance in the atrocity 
of his enemies. 

It was on February 14, 1793, that the Discovery 
was once more sighted, this time off the coast of 
Kawaihae, in Hawaii. Here Vancouver landed, not 
guns, but a bull and a cow, the first of the kind the 
natives had seen. It is probable, from the fact that 
the Hawaiian word for "goat" is "kao" (pro- 
nounced " cow " ) , that they had hitherto mistaken 
the goat for its bigger horned relation. This present 
was intended for Kamehameha, who now appears 
before Vancouver for the first time, at least since 
1779. We can imagine with what interest the Brit- 
ish sailor would look upon the renowned chieftain 
of whose prowess he had heard such wonderful ac- 
counts, as, clad in his famous yellow cloak, Kame- 
hameha stepped on February 21st upon the deck of 
the white king's ship. He was attended by John 
Young, who acted as interpreter, and by his queen 
Kaahumanu, whose age Vancouver set down as 



220 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

about sixteen, though she was really twenty-five. 
But foreigners never could get right about the ages 
of Hawaiians. Presents were liberally distributed 
and the soul of Kamehameha was not above a half 
childish delight in a showy scarlet cloak which Van- 
couver bestowed upon him. Arrayed in this the 
king strutted about the decks as though wearing 
the paludament of a Eoman Emperor. 

Next day, the ships came to anchor in Keala- 
kekua Bay, the scene of Cook's murder. Happily 
there was no sign of any reawakening animosity in 
the memory of that tragic episode. On the con- 
trary, the visit was marked by a grand ceremonial 
call on the part of Kamehameha on the officers of 
the ships. He came off with his retinue of kahili 
bearers, spittoon bearers and the rest, in a fleet of 
eleven large double canoes. He wore his feather 
helmet and cloak and, on stepping on board, be- 
stowed upon Vancouver with royal munificence 
four beautiful feather helmets, ninety swine, and a 
large quantity of fruit and vegetables. Not to be 
outdone in generosity, the English commander gave 
Kamehameha in return iive cows and three sheep. 
Kaiana and even Keeaumoku grew quite jealous. 

The festivities were continued on the fourth day 
of March by a grand entertainment given to the 
visitors on shore. It took the form of a sham fight 
and a spear exercise between a hundred and fifty of 
the choicest Hawaiian warriors. Kamehameha him- 
self took part, and it was on this occasion that Van- 
couver says he saw six spears hurled simultaneously 
at the king. Of these he caught three, parried two 
more, and avoided the sixth by an agile motion of 
his body. The Englishmen contributed their part 



THE VISITS OP VANCOUVER 221 

to the proceeding by giving a grand exhibition of 
fireworks in the evening. 

It was Vancouver's plan, if possible, to make 
peace between Kamehameha and the Leeward Is- 
lands, and so prevent what seemed to him likely to 
become but a bloody and devastating war which 
would lead to renewed attacks upon foreigners such 
as that of Waimea. To this end, when he had se- 
cured the friendship of Kamehameha, he sailed for 
Maui and arrived at Lahaina on March 7th. Al- 
most immediately after he was visited by Kahekili 
and Kamohomoho. These chiefs were probably anx- 
ious to anticipate him in his action on the Daeda- 
lus affair. To punish the murder of Lieutenant 
Hergest and Mr. Gooch was indeed one of the two 
pieces of business Vancouver had come to Maui to 
transact. He soon convinced himself, rightly or 
wrongly, that the chiefs were not concerned in the 
affray, and Kahekili informed him that he had al- 
ready had three men executed for the crime. Kamo- 
homoho seconded his relative's protestations and de- 
clared himself willing to accompany Vancouver to 
Oahu to secure and punish the rest of the cul- 
prits. 

The second piece of business Vancouver had in 
hand was a putting a stop to the war. He discussed 
terms of peace with the chiefs, and found them only 
too willing to avoid the necessity of having to op- 
pose Kamehameha's invading army. They sug- 
gested that Kaeo should go with Vancouver to Ha- 
waii and there negotiate a treaty with Kame- 
hameha. There was, however, no time for this, so 
Vancouver wrote a letter to John Young, who was 
in attendance on Kamehameha, explaining the 



222 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

terms decided upon by the kings of Maui and Kauai. 
This was sent off in the hands of one of the chiefs. 
But the Hawaiian postal service was imperfect in 
those days. The message was sent off, but it was 
never delivered, for the chief was attacked on land- 
ing and had to flee for his life. Probably Kame- 
hameha never intended his friendship with the 
white man to obstruct the way to victory, or to 
allow himself to accede to any demand for terms. 
He was ready with the characteristic Hawaiian 
word " pelapaha" "perhaps," to those who ap- 
proached him, but he was too obstinate easily to 
change his purpose and too wily to divulge it. 

So Vancouver for the present had to be content 
with giving a few goats to the Maui chiefs, dazzling 
the natives with his fireworks, and concentrating 
his attention upon the avenging of the Daedalus. 

For this purpose he set sail for Oahu and arrived 
at Waikiki on March 20th. No sooner had he ar- 
rived than a canoe put off to him with three pris- 
oners and witnesses ready to certify that these were 
the guilty ones. The poor wretches were shot, but 
afterwards, by the confession of the witnesses them- 
selves, it turned out that those who had been thus 
executed were only guilty of violating the native 
kapu ? and had had nothing to do with the murder. 
Thus the whole action of the chiefs seemed susju- 
ciously like an attempt to divert the Englishmen 
from the right scent, and put an end to the affair. 
Koi, the chief who had been the instigator of the 
atrocious deed, escaped punishment. 

Still it would be unfair to accuse Vancouver, as 
Jarves seems to do, of any laxity in punishing the 
murder, or of any undue familiarity with the mur- 



THE VISITS OP VANCOUVEK 223 

derers. The accusations of the witnesses were so 
emphatic, and the denial on the part of the accused 
of any knowledge of the outrage so manifestly un- 
true, that Vancouver can scarcely be blamed for the 
unfortunate miscarriage of justice. 

More unfortunate still, at least at the time, ap- 
peared the failure of the English commander to se- 
cure peace between Kamehameha and the northern 
chiefs. But in reality this was but a seeming mis- 
fortune, for it led, as we shall see, to the ultimate 
consolidation of the government of the islands 
under one rule. This was surely better than a tem- 
porary truce, ending, as all truces did end, in fresh 
and more devastating and murderous campaigns. 

Vancouver himself must have got to feel this in 
time, for on his way from Oahu to Kauai, he fell in 
with a great fleet of canoes which had just been en- 
gaged in a revolt in the northern island and were 
carrying the news and the prisoners to Kaeo. One 
of these canoes was sixty-one and a half feet long, 
beautifully carved and made of a single pine-tree 
which had drifted from the American coast. It 
contained the leg-bones, with the flesh still adher- 
ing, of two chiefs who had been recently killed. 
With this ghastly sight still in his mind, Vancouver 
anchored off Waimea, and there, with his customary 
philanthropy, he landed two girls belonging to the 
adjacent island of Mihau who the year before had 
been carried off by an English vessel and whom he 
had found in a destitute condition in America. He 
took the greatest possible trouble to provide them 
with suitable protection and land. 

Having at last fulfilled to the best of his oppor- 
tunities the objects of his visit to the islands, Van- 



224 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

couver sailed away to the northwest coast, thus 
bringing to a close his second visit. 

The third and last visit took place in the follow- 
ing year. On January 9, 1794, the English ships 
appeared off Hilo, where Kamehameha was then re- 
siding, keeping in connection with the Makahiki 
months the great festival of Lono. This celebration 
began some time in October and lasted four months, 
so that it was in the last month of the feast that 
Vancouver appeared. It was not a particularly 
good time for visitors to intrude, yet, such was the 
friendship between Kamehameha and Vancouver, 
that the king at once broke off his participation in 
the New Year festival and took passage to Keala- 
' kekua Bay. 

Here they stayed six memorable weeks, during 
which the British visitors were treated with the 
most unbounded hospitality and received as the 
guests of the nation on the very beach which had 
drunk the blood of the murdered Cook. Vancouver 
for his part used the time well and wisely in tutor- 
ing the noble savage in the ways of true civilization. 
He landed cattle and sheep and was far-seeing 
enough to have a kapu put on them for ten years, 
to give time for increase. 

During this stay, too, Vancouver's carpenters 
laid the keel of the first ship ever built in the Ha- 
waiian islands. It was begun on February 1st and 
was called the Britannia. Though only thirty-six 
feet long, it proved of the greatest possible service 
to the king. More serviceable still was Vancouver's 
advice to Kamehameha with regard to the manage- 
ment of affairs, the discipline of the troops, the ad- 
ministration of justice, and the intercourse with 



THE VISITS OF VANCOUVER 225 

white men. For the first time, too, Kamehameha 
heard from the lips of the good explorer of a true 
God, to be served with love instead of with fear, a 
God to whom Kane and Ku and Lono were but 
shadows of the night. He heard also of that moral 
law which ought to take the place of the cruel kapu, 
and Vancouver promised that on his return to Eng- 
land he would ask King George to send a teacher 
of the true religion. Whether all this had much 
effect on the mind of Kamehameha or not, it 
would be difficult to say. Probably it did not alto- 
gether miss the mark, since, though the king was 
destined never to hear the voice of a Christian mis- 
sionary, yet on his death-bed he expressed the wish 
that his son might learn the new faith. For him- 
self, he said, he died in the faith of his fathers, but 
he would recommend his successor to test for him- 
self the tidings from over the sea. 

Beyond all this, a very delicate office fell to the 
lot of Vancouver in bringing about a reconciliation, 
temporary at all events, between Kamehameha and 
his wayward spouse Kaahumanu. She had been sus- 
pected, probably not without some reason, of play- 
ing the part of Guinevere to the Lancelot of Kaiana 
and had in consequence aroused her husband's 
jealousy. 

But it would be impossible to crowd into a page 
or two all the good which Vancouver attempted and 
effected during his forty days' tutelage of a king. 
At the end he strongly recommended Kamehameha 
to be guided by the advice of Davis and Young and 
he also offered to remove from the islands seven 
other white men whose presence was not likely to be 
helpful. To this last suggestion, however, the 



226 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

chiefs objected so strongly that the offer was not 
pressed. 

Then came the important event which in a way 
gathered up the results of Vancouver's three visits 
to Hawaii. 

On February 21, 1794, a great council of chiefs 
met on board the Discovery and decided to ask the 
protection of Great Britain, with the important 
reservation that all the internal affairs of the island 
should be managed, as before, by their own chiefs. 
It may be thought that Vancouver had pressed this 
unduly upon the mind of Kamehameha, but such 
does not seem to have been the case. The idea 
seems to have sprung from the brain of the king 
himself and certainly as the result of a conviction 
that an outside protectorate was necessary for the 
stability of the kingdom does credit to the states- 
manlike quality of his far-seeing mind. Already the 
arrival of foreign ships was introducing new and 
perilous elements into the Hawaiian common- 
wealth. The sailors were often the chartered liber- 
tines of the nations they represented and consid- 
ered man, woman and child their natural prey. In 
every affray with the natives the natives would al- 
ways by the foreign powers be regarded as in the 
wrong, and the chiefs would be mulcted in heavy 
indemnities for acts in which perhaps they were 
more sinned against than sinning. All this came 
literally to pass in the next reign, and Kamehameha 
saw that there could be no security against it unless 
some strong foreign power undertook the protection 
of his realm against unscrupulous adventurers, 
leaving him to do what he felt well able to do, name- 
ly, govern his subjects according to his own ideas. 



THE VISITS OF VANCOUVER 227 

So the terms suggested were accepted on both 
sides, and four days later, on February 25, 1794, 
Lieutenant Paget went ashore and hoisted the Brit- 
ish flag on Hawaii, thus taking possession of the 
land in the name of King George. A great shout 
went up from the natives, — " Kanaka no Beritane" 
" We are men of Britain." 

How was it that this so-called cession of Hawaii 
came to nothing? 

Well, England was, as we know, busy at this time 
with matters which left little leisure to pay much 
attention to the acquisition of a single island in the 
Pacific. So the act was never ratified by the Home 
Government and the independence of Hawaii was 
left unimpaired. Vancouver sailed away to Kauai 
and, having promised to return to the islands with 
artisans and Christian teachers, he left them for the 
last time on March 13, 1794, for England. 

Here he was given other work to do, for these 
were busy times for the British navy, and, as he 
died in 1798, he was unable to carry out his benevo- 
lent intentions. 

Still, however far he fell short of accomplishing 
what he desired, his work is by no means to be for- 
gotten, a work which reflects undying honour upon 
the great sailor who was so tender and so true, so 
upright and just, moreover, that no breath of cal- 
umny has ever arisen to smirch his fame. 

It is a bright page, too, in the history of civiliza- 
tion, one of those pages which men of English blood 
and English speech will ever love to contemplate, a 
record of unpretentious yet noble philanthropy, of 
Christian wisdom and consideration in intercourse 
with the childlike natives of the Pacific seas. 



XXV 

CIVIL WAR IN OAHU 

"Accidental judgments, casual slaughters, 
And deaths put on by cunning and forcd cause: 
And in this upshot, purposes mistook 
Fallen on the inventors 9 heads." 

AFTER Vancouver's departure, the year 1794 
passed away almost without history so far 
as the one island of Hawaii is concerned, 
but on the other islands, by way of compensation, 
history was made rapidly and Kamehameha must 
have had all he needed to do in watching the com- 
batants in Maui and Oahu prepare the way for his 
own victory by exhausting one another's strength. 

It was with good reason that the Hawaiians had 
now come to believe in Kamehameha as the chief 
favoured by the gods, for he could not have ar- 
ranged matters better for his own advantage if he 
had had committed to him the complete ordering of 
the fate of Hawaii. 

First of all, there fell like a thunder-clap the news 
of the death of the mighty warrior and wily states- 
man, Kahekili, king of Maui, and reputed father of 
our hero. Though a very old man, over eighty, at 
least, he had taken an active part in war and politics 
up to the last. Only a year before his death he had 
gone over to Kauai to put down a rebellion to which 
some worthless foreigners had instigated the regent 

228 



CIVIL WAK m OAHU 229 

Inamoo. This lie successfully accomplished, and 
when he came back, though in appearance feeble 
and emaciated, he had no immediate apprehension 
of death. He died in July, 1794, at Ulukou in 
Waikiki, near Honolulu. It is significant of his 
relation to Kamehameha that immediately after 
his death his bones were claimed by the Hawaiian 
counsellors, Kameeiamoku and Kamanawa, whom 
some old legends declare to have been, like Kame- 
hameha, Kahekili's sons, though the genealogies 
make them the sons of Keawepoepoe. The bones of 
the dead chief were taken to Kona and there con- 
cealed, according to custom, in a cave at Kaloko, 
North Kona. 

It was to be expected that the removal of so com- 
manding a figure would have an important effect 
on the drama. Kahekili fell 

" As falls on Mount Al vermis 
The thunder-smitten oak," 

and the force of the fall shook the throne which 
he had so tenaciously held and from whence he had 
so vigorously ruled. 

It was a double gain to Kamehameha, for we can- 
not suppose he sorrowed much for one who had 
never been to him as a father, but only a relentless 
if admiring foe. In the first place, Kamehameha 
would feel that he was now about to enter upon his 
lawful inheritance. Kahekili had promised him the 
throne after his death and, though he had since 
shown a singular disposition to forget the promise, 
Kamehameha for his part had no intention to con- 
sider it other than binding. In the next place, 



230 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

Kamehameha knew that there was no one among 
the sons of Kahekili of sufficient power and experi- 
ence to oppose his way successfully. Indeed, the 
folly and treachery of Kahekili's acknowledged 
sons pulled their kingdom in pieces even before it 
was attacked. 

Kahekili appears to have left his dominions 
divided in the following manner. Kalanikapule 
was to retain the kingdom of Oahu, and Kaeo was 
to rule over Maui and Kauai. But both knew it 
was necessary to combine forces to restrain Kame- 
hameha from dispossessing them both. 

In November, 1794, Kaeo decided to pay a visit 
to the most northern part of his dominions, the 
island of Kauai, to settle the affairs of that district 
and especially to look after the regent Inamoo whose 
loyalty was something less or more than question- 
able. 

But on the way there broke out between him and 
Kalanikapule the strangest and most inexplicable 
civil war in the whole history of the islands. We 
have no account of any previous breach of friend- 
ship and no hint as to any possible reason for dis- 
agreement, yet no sooner did Kaeo attempt a land- 
ing at Waimanalo in Oahu, on the way to Kauai, 
than he found his presence regarded as a challenge 
to war and all Kalanikapule's troops drawn up on 
the beach to oppose him. If the Oahu chief took the 
arrival of Kaeo for an invasion, he was certainly 
mistaken, and for the mistake there was not the 
smallest excuse. It would rather seem that Kalani- 
kapule was guilty of the basest treachery and re- 
garded the presence of his brother chief as an oppor- 
tunity to lay violent hands on the sovereignty of all 



CIVIL WAE m OAHU 231 

the leeward islands. It can hardly be urged that 
he was ignorant of the measures adopted by his 
subordinates. Still, the ways of the alii in their 
military operations offer many curious puzzles to 
the historian. 

As soon as Kaeo found his landing resisted, he 
determined to force his way ashore, and a skirmish- 
ing fight began which was kept up until the arrival 
of Kalanikapule himself. Considerable mischief, 
however, had already been done, and the com- 
mander of the Oahu forces had been shot by Kaeo's 
foreigner, Murray, the Armourer. A conference 
followed and, to all appearance, a friendly under- 
standing was reached, for uncle and nephew stayed 
together for some little time after this on terms of 
the utmost amity. 

At last Kaeo determined to proceed on his way to 
Kauai and, leaving Koolau, the fleet sailed round 
the northern coast of Oahu, landing first at Waialua 
and then at Waia^tae. It was while he was resting 
at Waiamae that there came to his ears the news 
of a formidable conspiracy among his chiefs against 
himself. It was decided, so he learned, to throw 
him overboard during the ensuing voyage. 

It is hard to see the reason for this revolt. Kaeo 
was no tyrant ; on the contrary he had always been 
popular with the lesser chiefs and with the common 
people. The question naturally suggests itself, 
Had Kalanikapule a hand in the matter? Had he 
been at work bribing the chiefs in order to secure 
by treachery what he might possibly fail to obtain 
by force of arms? 

But, had this been so, we should naturally have 
expected in the subsequent battle that Kaiana and 



232 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

the other disaffected chiefs would have succeeded in 
saving themselves. There is another hypothesis 
which occurs as having some degree of probability, 
viz. — that Inamoo, the regent of Kauai, was sin- 
cerely desirous of thwarting Kaeo's visit to his 
regency and had been scheming, by ways familiar 
enough to the time and place, to foment discord be- 
tween the two kings. 

However, when Kaeo learned of the disaffection 
prevailing among his chiefs, he determined to stop 
it in characteristic fashion. Just as more civilized 
states have diverted attention from internal trou- 
bles by declaring war upon a foreign foe, so Kaeo 
knew that he had only to give his men a chance of 
plunder in Oahu in order to dispel the clouds of 
revolt from the sky of his fortunes. So, better 
relishing the prospect of dying gloriously, with the 
bodies of his fellows heaped around him like a 
hecatomb, than that of dying alone in the cold 
waves of ocean, he cried : " Better to die in battle ; 
many will be the companions in death ! " Then he 
ordered the canoes to be hauled up on the beach and 
prepared to march overland against Kalanika- 
pule. 

Instantly, as by magic, the mutinous spirit in the 
army disappeared; loyal chiefs and men gathered 
around Kaeo, and even the men of Waialua and 
Waianae, tired of the capriciousness of Kalani- 
kapule, or anxious to fight for him they deemed the 
stronger warrior, flocked to his banner. The pros- 
pect of battle, booty, lands and fame never failed to 
reconcile an Hawaiian to the risk of wounds or 
death. 

Had not Kalanikapule been aided more than a 



CIVIL WAR m OAHU 233 

little by his foreigners, it is probable that his ad- 
versary would have carried all before him. 

On November 21, 1794, Captain Brown of the 
schooner Jackal and Captain Gordon of the Prince 
Lee Boo entered Honolulu harbour. It was then 
named Kou and had been discovered and used for 
the first time by Captain Brown, who, appropriately 
enough, named it Fair Haven. Here the two cap- 
tains were joined by Captain Kendrick of the Lady 
Washington and it was from these three ships that 
Kalanikapule derived much needed assistance and 
the material with which to carry on the war. One 
may suppose that the foreigners were only led to 
take part in the savage contest from some chivalrous 
desire to help the weaker cause or from the feeling 
that it was proper to bolster up the lawful sovereign 
of the island. But it had been better for them if 
they had refrained. 

Kaeo, in the first encounters, was victorious. 
Murray, the armourer, with his death-dealing gun 
and unerring aim, became a name of terror to the 
Oahu chiefs, and the invaders were rapidly advanc- 
ing over the Waianae Mountains, thence across the 
plains, now green with rice, but then almost dry 
and lifeless, till they reached the Salt Lake in the 
Ewa district, near the famous Pearl Harbour. Now 
civilization has claimed the region for her own. 
Kailway cars take gay parties of excursionists to 
pleasant resorts along the Pearl lochs; artesian 
wells have reclaimed the soil from the possession, 
hitherto undisputed, of the mimosa, and trans- 
formed the arid plain into a field of vivid green; 
and sugar and bananas grow freely from the soil 
fertilized over a century ago with Hawaiian blood. 



234 THE NAPOLEON OP THE PACIFIC 

It was at this juncture that the mate of the 
Jackal and eight others volunteered to assist 
Kalanikapule. 

Several skirmishes took place between the ad- 
vanced pickets and then Kaeo, with his main army, 
arrived at Kalauao, just east of Pearl Harbour. 
Here, on December 12th, a battle raged from morn- 
ing till night, a battle fought to decide no quarrel, 
to settle no claims, but apparently to gratify the 
merely animal appetite for fighting. 

When Kaeo brought his troops through the culti- 
vated fields and taro patches below the Kalauao 
ravine, he found Kalanikapule occupying a strong 
position on the shore between Honolulu and the 
Pearl lochs. Kalani himself with his chiefs com- 
manded the central division of his army at Aiea ; the 
right wing occupied the elevated road running from 
Aiea to Kalauao and was under the command of 
Kalanikapule's brother, Koalaukani; his uncle, 
Kamohomoho, led the left wing along the shingly 
beach of Malei. On the shore, with the armed 
boats of the Jackal, Captain Brown held a com- 
manding position. 

"All day long the noise of battle rolled." A furi- 
ous onset from the right wing on the uplands 
shattered the centre of Kaeo's army, while the fire 
from the boats poured volleys of death into the 
broken ranks, and panic came, endeavouring, but in 
vain, to make escape from death. Kaeo fought like 
a hero till all hope was gone. Then he fled with six 
of his followers to a small ravine, where he hoped 
to find means of escape. But, as Nelson's decora- 
tions exposed him to the aim of the French sharp- 
shooters, so poor Kaeo's yellow feather cloak, which 



CIVIL WAR IN OAHIT 235 

he worg proudly as became his rank, made him a 
too conspicuous mark for the pitiless sailors in the 
boats. They fired till the pursuers, attracted by 
the noise, came down like hounds upon a lion at bay. 
And like a lion he stood, and fought, and died, hav- 
ing at least the grim consolation he coveted, for 
many indeed were the " companions in death." It 
is said that several of Kaeo's wives were killed in 
this battle, fighting bravely like their lord. Thus 
with chiefs, and wives and slaves, he went well at- 
tended to the shades below. 

A wonderful story is told of one woman who 
fought in this memorable struggle. When evening 
arrived and the corpses were heaped high on the 
beach, there was thrown upon the ghastly pile the 
apparently lifeless body of Kahulunuikaaumoku, a 
daughter of the high priest of Kauai. Then the 
darkness fell and those hideous sequels of battle, 
the carrion birds, came for their prey. An owl, or 
some other night-bird, alighted on the woman's 
head and attempted to pick out her eye. The blow 
of the beak, and the smart of the torn eyelid re- 
stored her to consciousness, and, painfully slipping 
down from the pile of slain, she made her way by 
slow degrees to the shores of the bay. Accustomed 
from infancy to the water, she swam across the bay 
to the other side of Aiea, and managed to make her 
way into the secret recesses of the Halawa valley, ex- 
pecting to die in the cave to which she had dragged 
her shattered body. But, next day, a friendly 
acquaintance discovered her hiding-place, brought 
her medicine and food, and kept her until an 
amnesty was proclaimed by Kalanikapule. Then 
she came forth and in due course recovered from 



236 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

her hurts. Years after, Kahulunuikaaumoku be- 
came a Christian and died as recently as 1834. 

The victory of Kalanikapule, which might have 
established his power from Maui to Kauai, had a 
long train of tragic consequences. 

First of all, when Captain Brown's men came 
triumphantly back, a salute was fired in honour of 
the occasion, and a wad from one of the guns 
entered the cabin of the Lady Washington and 
killed Captain Kendrick, who was at dinner at the 
time. This was misfortune number one. 

Then came the funeral on shore which was the 
first service of the kind the natives had seen. They 
thought it a kind of anaana, or magic to procure the 
death of Captain Brown. Anaana was a common 
practice among the Hawaiians under similar cir- 
cumstances. The sorcerer would secure something 
belonging to his intended victim, such as a lock of 
hair, parings of the nails, or even saliva from the 
mouth, and with this as a bait would make the 
necessary incantations. Then it was expected that 
the object of imprecation would speedily pine away 
and die. Sometimes the kahuna would facilitate 
the operation with poison, but, with such fear was 
anaana regarded, that fear alone was often sufficient 
to procure the victim's death. The chiefs were, for 
this reason, always careful to have everything con- 
nected with them that was no longer of use burned 
or buried, so that the wizards might not get hold 
of it. 

So the natives, measuring others by their own 
standards, believed that Captain Brown was doomed 
for having killed, though accidentally, the captain 
of the Lady Washington. Soon after, moreover, 



CIVIL WAE IN OAHU 237 

they showed themselves willing to act as midwife 
for the labouring fates, though for the present they 
contented themselves with robbing the grave of the 
unfortunate sailor for the sake of getting the wind- 
ing sheet* The Lady Washington, after the tragic 
death of her captain, sailed for China, but Brown 
and Gordon remained in port on the most friendly 
terms with the chiefs whom they had assisted to 
victory. 

For his services in the battle of Kalauao Kalani- 
kapule gave Captain Brown four hundred hogs, 
and the sailors were kept busy on shore butchering 
and salting them. It may have been reluctance to 
see all these stores become the white man's property, 
or it may have been, as suggested above, a simple 
desire to connive with Fate, which prompted the 
Hawaiians to the treacherous deed which followed. 

It was on January 1, 1795, that Captain Brown 
sent his mate Lamport, with four men, ashore to 
the Kaihikapu salt-pond to procure more salt to 
complete the pickling of the pork, when suddenly, 
without warning, Kamohomoho boarded the ships 
with an armed force, killed both the captains, and 
made the rest of the crews prisoners. Those on 
shore, being unarmed and few in number, were 
totally powerless to prevent the outrage and were 
easily overpowered. When Lamport and his party 
returned from the salt-ponds, they were surprised 
to find the ships in the hands of the chiefs, but 
could make no resistance. They were beaten and 
treated with great cruelty, but, since the value of 
white men as a marketable commoditv was rising in 
the islands, their lives were spared. 

Kaianikapule was overjoyed to see so many guns 



238 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

and so much munition of war in his hands, and, his 
ambition vaulting to the zenith, he perceived him- 
self already the conqueror of Kamehameha and the 
master of all the archipelago. He resolved at once 
to sail with his newly stolen fleet to Hawaii and 
sweep his rival from the seas. 

But he was reckoning without his host, having 
altogether too low an opinion, not only of his great 
Hawaiian antagonist, but also of the craft and re- 
source of his white captives. It must be acknowl- 
edged, too, that he was a little intoxicated by his 
sudden and not altogether creditable success. 

However, on January 11th, the king had all the 
arms and stores of every kind brought on board and, 
embarking some of the chiefs, he had the vessels 
anchored off Waikiki. Kamohomoho, who was not 
only older but wiser, strongly advised his nephew to 
put the foreigners in the canoes, and have natives 
only on board the ships, but Kalanikapule was not 
oversure of his own men's ability to handle the ships 
and decided that he would produce a much finer 
effect upon Kamehameha if he appeared with a 
whole ship's crew of foreigners to oppose the much 
vaunted prowess of Davis and Young. 

So, reserving the ships manned by the white 
sailors for himself and his train, and with the sol- 
diers following in the fleet of canoes, Kalanikapule 
set sail for his career of conquest. 

Alas, as may have been anticipated, he did not get 
far. At midnight a signal was given and the white 
men rose up in a body, made a desperate attack on 
the royal retinue, cleared the decks, and succeeded 
in confining the king, the queen, and a few at- 
tendants in the cabin. 



CIVIL WAR m OAHU 239 

Then' they set sail and stood for the south, after 
a while putting the king and queen and one at- 
tendant into a canoe which was being towed astern, 
and sending them ignoniiniously ashore. 

Then they went on their way to Hawaii, where 
they received provisions, landed the three remain- 
ing prisoners, and informed Kamehameha of their 
adventures. They also gave up to the favourite of 
fortune the stores which Kalanikapule had collected 
for use against Hawaii, and so proceeded on their 
journey to China. 

Thus, not only did Kalanikapule's vaulting ambi- 
tion o'erleap itself, but all he had schemed and 
plotted to obtain fell into the very lap of his enemy. 
Kamehameha had fought hard to earn the smiles of 
Fortune, but now his wooing time seemed almost 
over, and the bashful maid seemed ready to sur- 
render herself without a struggle to his arms. 

He began at length to believe that the time was 
ripe to storm the last outworks which kept him back 
from the proud position of Overlord of the Ha- 
waiian Archipelago. 



XXVI 

THE LAST STKUGGLE IN OAHU 

"It is held 
That valour is the chief est virtue, and 
Most dignifies the haver: if it be, 
The man I speak of cannot in the world 
Be singly counterpoised. ' ' 

EVERYTHING now conspired to show that 
the critical moment was come for Kame- 
hameha to throw his forces against his last 
rival, Kalanikapule. 

Accordingly, all over Hawaii the messengers flew, 
summoning the chiefs to muster their fighting men 
and canoes of war. The levy was the largest that 
had ever been made. No feudatory chief was ex- 
cused, and when the muster was complete the great- 
est and best equipped army that had ever heard the 
strident blast of the Kiha-pu stood ready to follow 
Kamehameha to victory. It is difficult to estimate 
accurately the number of warriors engaged in this 
enterprise, but it was certainly over sixteen thou- 
sand, and these the pick of all Hawaii. Sixteen 
foreigners held commissions under the king, and of 
these, John Young, Isaac Davis, and Peter Ander- 
son had charge of the cannon. 

It was in February, 1795, that the Great Armada 
sailed, under the most favourable auspices. Its 

240 



THE LAST STRUGGLE IN OAHTJ 241 

first destination was Maui, where a landing was 
effected at Lahaina, and the town completely des- 
troyed. The canoes, we are told, lay all along the 
beach from Launuipoko to Mala, a motley fleet. 
Some were made from a single tree hollowed out, 
with outriggers added; some were large vessels 
from fifty to a hundred feet long, made of planks 
sewn together, partly decked over, and with a raised 
platform in the middle for persons of rank. The 
sails were made of mats, triangular in shape and 
broad at the top. Some of these canoes must have 
been marvels of size and workmanship. The great 
war canoe of Peleioholani, king of Oahu, who died 
in 1770, held over a hundred and twenty men, be- 
sides large quantities of provisions and stores. One 
portion of a double canoe used to lie on the beach 
in the south of Hawaii which measured a hundred 
and eight feet long. Its mate had perished but, 
when perfect, the vessel must have been of enor- 
mous size. 

So we may imagine that Kamehameha made with 
his fleet no inconsiderable show on the coast of 
Maui. No battle took place, for the victory of the 
lao Valley in the last campaign had not been for- 
gotten, and Kalanikapule's brother, Koalaukane, 
who was in command, fled at once to Oahu to join 
the main army. In order to destroy any possible 
chance of insurrection springing up behind him, 
Kamehameha laid the whole west side of Maui 
waste. 

Then, the army once more embarking, the great 
array of boats moved on to Molokai, where a land- 
ing was made at Kaunakakai, and the beach was 
covered, as at Lahaina, for a distance of four miles. 



242 THE NAPOLEON OP THE PACIFIC 

It was here that Kamehameha had had his inter- 
view with the dying Kalola, at which he obtained 
charge of the princess Keopuolani. Now he was 
within measurable distance of fulfilling the vision 
he had that day had before his eyes. 

But there was one little rift within the lute which 
was prophesying such sweet and melodious success. 
There had never been any great cordiality between 
Kaiana and the great Kona chiefs, and of late 
Kamehameha's opinion of Kaiana was taking form 
as suspicion and distrust. And not without reason, 
for Kaiana, vain of his foreign experience, and 
puffed up with the notice of the white men, and 
with the scarce-concealed favour of the queen 
Kaahumanu, felt himself slighted by not being more 
freely admitted to Kamehameha's councils. 

A great council of the leading chiefs was held at 
Kaunakakai, and Kaiana was not invited. This 
was enough to kindle into flame the jealousy which 
had gradually been growing hotter and hotter. 
He had had no chance in Hawaii of fomenting re- 
bellion, for the loyalty of the Kona chiefs was be- 
yond corruption. Drawn by the magnetism of a 
will stronger than his own, he had come upon the 
expedition, contributing his quota of men, canoes 
and material. But now, under the smart of this 
last slight, he began to revolve in his mind the 
chance of finding himself better appreciated in the 
camp and council of Kalanikapule. By holding the 
balance in the campaign about to commence he 
might surely attain that consideration for himself 
which Kamehameha had enviously denied him. So 
there was treason in the camp. 

The same night that the council was being held at 



THE LAST STRUGGLE IN OAHU 243 

Kaunakakai, Kaiana was on his way to pay a visit 
to Namahana, the wife of Keeaumoku, and mother 
of Kaahumanu. The following dialogue ensued : — 

" I have called," said Kaiana, " out of affection 
for you all, to see how you are. I thought after the 
sea-voyage that some of you might be unwell ; and, 
as I was coming along, what do I find? The chiefs 
are holding a council. I was exceedingly aston- 
ished that they should do so and not have the grace 
to send me word." 

" Oh," replied Namahana, " they are doubtless 
discussing secret matters." 

" Perhaps," said the indignant chief, suggestively, 
for he thought that possibly these " secret matters " 
included some plot against himself. 

So he returned to the camp, but on the way paid 
another visit, this time to Kalaimoku, a high chief 
related to Kalola and to King Kiwalao. He had 
been taken prisoner after the battle of Mokuohai, 
and had since remained the firm friend of his captor, 
Kaniehameha. Kaiana possibly relied upon this 
common descendant of Keawe to give him some 
encouragement to revolt against the upstart younger 
branch of the royal house, but Kalaimoku was dis- 
creet and, not only refused to accept Kaiana's hints, 
but also went and informed Kamehameha of the 
disloyalty which was hatching. 

Kamehameha had fought too many lions to be 
afraid of one vain and treacherous fox, so he 
magnanimously took no notice of the matter and 
allowed Kaiana to commit himself still more deeply 
to his new and suicidal course. The king knew, 
moreover, the very slight encouragement Kaiana 
would meet with, even from his closest associates 



244 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

and friends. This was exemplified when Kaiana 
went to bid farewell to his own wife Kekupuohi, and 
to tell her of his intention to desert the cause of 
Kamehameha for that of Kalanikapule. She ex- 
claimed with astonishment at his treason that he 
might do as he liked, but that for her part she would 
follow " her chief," Kamehameha. Kumour has it 
that, if Kaiana had succeeded in beguiling the fancy 
of Kaahumanu, Kamehameha had been no less suc- 
cessful with Kekupuohi. Others are of opinion that 
husband and wife had decided to remain on opposite 
sides so that defeat of the one side or the other 
would not entirely obliterate the hope of mercy. 

With no further development of Kaiana's treach- 
ery and with no sign that it had been discovered, 
the fleet started once again. But, in the night, 
when the voyage to Oahu was more than half com- 
pleted, Kaiana separated his canoes and followers 
from the main body of the expedition and landed at 
Koolau. Whether many followed him in his de- 
fection is uncertain, but his brother, Nahiolea, with 
his immediate friends and retainers, undoubtedly 
formed part of the deserting force, news welcome 
enough to Kalanikapule and not unwelcome even to 
Kamehameha, since, assured of treason, it was well 
to know its full extent. 

These unexpected reinforcements for Kalani- 
kapule crossed to Nuuanu and joined the Oahu 
army at the same time that Kamehameha was land- 
ing his forces at Waialae Bay, the canoes stretch- 
ing from thence to Waikiki. 

The Hawaiian king, however, was in no hurry to 
attack Kalanikapule, employing a few days ar- 
ranging and preparing his men for what he meant 



THE LAST STEUGGLE IN OAHU 245 

to be, as it actually turned out, the most decisive 
contest in his whole career. 

Then he marched up the Nuuanu Valley to meet 
the forces of Oahu. There is no spot in the Ha- 
waiian Islands so familiar to the outside world, 
which views the group in the few hours between the 
arrival and departure of a steamer, than that won- 
derful break in the mountain range known as the 
Nuuanu Pali. The mountain ridge runs right 
through the island of Oahu, rising in places to a 
height of 4,000 feet and presenting knife-like edges 
to the north. But it is broken up into a series of 
gorge-like valleys, each of which provides a death 
trap for an army. Of these valleys the only one 
affording easy access to the other side of the island 
is the Nuuanu Valley. Eunning, as it does, through 
the heart of the city of Honolulu, skirted by gardens 
bright with oleander and pomegranate, and fringed 
with feathery palms, it is one of the pleasantest 
drives in which a passing visitor may indulge. 
Further up, beyond the city and the cemetery and 
the mausoleum of the kings, the valley narrows, and 
the dark mountains, clad with forests of kou, kukui 
and koa, with thread-like waterfalls descending 
hundreds of feet to quench the thirst of the plain 
below, close in upon the road and seem to stretch 
out great ropes of scarlet ieie and other creepers 
towards the traveller. We pass an old palace of 
Kamehameha, now quite overgrown with luxuriant 
flowers and foliage, which fondly embrace the 
crumbling ruin. Then suddenly comes a coup 
d'oeil such as few lands afford. On either side, be- 
fore and behind, roll the great Pacific waves to- 
wards the white line of the coral reef, and the 



246 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

smooth, sandy beach. On one side rises the dull, 
dead crater of Leahi, or Diamond Head, like a lion 
couchant ; on the other the mountains of Kaala with 
clouds veiling their distant summits. Below, em- 
bosomed in foliage, is a city of many thousands of 
people, and behind is the plain of Kaneohe, the semi- 
circular amphitheatre of some half -submerged vol- 
cano, now green with fields of sugar almost to the 
ocean brink. Close on either side, rise the twin 
giant peaks of Konahoanui and Waiolani, the por- 
tals of the central highlands, through which, sway- 
ing the trailing masses of flowering vines, rush the 
trade winds with terrific force. And, right below, 
almost a sheer descent, a precipice which is enough 
to make the brain reel and the eyes swim. This is 
the Nuuanu Pali. Now there is a path by which 
a descent may be made with ease ; but a century ago 
it was no place for warriors fleeing before the onset 
of an infuriated foe. 

On the day that Kamehameha marched his forces 
up the famous valley the scene was much as has 
been described, except that there was no well-made 
road and no city nestling at the base of the moun- 
tain range. There were also then to be seen a few 
yards from the summit of the pass, under the shade 
of surrounding trees, two rude and shapeless idols, 
one on either side of the path. These were "Alma 
no Jca Pali" " The gods of the precipice." It was 
customary for every man who passed these images, 
descending the Pali, to propitiate the divinities by 
an offering of kapa or flowers and to render like 
grateful acknowledgment on his return. 

All else presented much the same aspect that it 
does to-day. But what a change the rush of that 



THE LAST STEUGGLE IN OAHU 247 

fierce torrent of men must have made ! Borne on 
tlie wind comes the chant of the kahunas, reciting 
the deeds of the chiefs and urging the men to vic- 
tory. Then come the shouts of defiant warriors, 
drowning the songs of the priests. Higher and 
higher rose the tumult till, like the clash of thunder- 
clouds in the Black Gorge of Iao, the two forces 
met, somewhere between Laimi and Puiwa. Whizz 
through the air went the blood-drinking spears; 
crash went the mallets and battle-axes ; more awful 
still rattled the muskets and thundered the cannon 
of the foreigners; shrill came the cries of the 
wounded and the dying, till the two armies were 
one struggling mass. 

The Oahu army made a brave resistance. At the 
beginning of the battle it had occupied a strong 
position behind a stone wall about three miles from 
Honolulu. Here they held their own obstinately, 
and here Kaiana, the traitor, stood grimly, reserv- 
ing his fire, waiting desperately for the only victim 
he deemed worthy of his bullet. Kamehameha cer- 
tainly did not avoid him. With the war-god, Kaili, 
before him, the " lonely one " seemed to tower above 
every combatant on this awful field, conspicuous 
everywhere by the insignia of his royal rank, and 
adding fresh impetus to the attack wherever he ap- 
peared among his enthusiastic soldiery. Yet 
Kaiana waited, watching for his chance. 

But he waited too long. John Young brought his 
artillery to bear upon the wall which protected 
Kaiana and his men, and at the first discharge the 
deserter fell, mortally wounded. Then, with a roar 
like that of the breakers upon the coral reef, the 
Hawaiians charged up the valley. Kaiana still 



248 THE NAPOLEON OP THE PACIFIC 

lived, hatred keeping back his soul from the world 
of shades. With heart almost laid bare bj his 
wound, and eyes fast glazing in death, he raised 
himself against the wall and fired towards the ad- 
vancing host. But no favouring deity guided the 
bullet, as he had fondly hoped, to the heart of 
Kamehameha. It fell dead without its billet and, 
as though the ineffectual shot had been an emblem 
of Kaiana s life, he too fell back to the earth and 
died. Kaiana had the ability to have made a better 
use of life, but his vanity and ambition stamped 
all his talents with the curse of futility. 

Then came the most awful moment of the battle. 
Were all the akua of Hawaii fighting for Kame- 
hameha? Were the gods angry with Oahu, turn- 
ing back the trade-winds so that the wet mountain 
mist filled the pass and hid the precipice from the 
eyes of the fighters? Kalanikapule and his men 
were being steadily driven back, then more quickly, 
then so quickly that the retreat became a rout, a 
mad, wild, pilipili rout, in which the one struggle 
was to escape the lightning-like spears of Kame- 
hameha and his alii. WHaere they were they knew 
not, nor knew they that Konahoanui and Waiolani 
were towering close beside them, till with the shriek 
of a multitude, there was hurled a sudden ava- 
lanche of living men into the whirling caldron of 
mist, — a cataract of men poured bodily into the 
night of death a thousand feet below. 

Some few escaped by climbing the sides of the 
adjacent mountains. Kalanikapule found refuge 
for a time in the secret caves of the highlands, but 
his army was no more, and most of the highest 
chiefs of Oahu had perished in the fight. 



THE LAST STBUGGLE IN OAHU 249 

It was a day of great mourning in Oahu. In 
every house there was wailing and tearing of hair 
for the warriors transfixed by the sharp spears or 
battered to death on the rocks of the Nuuanu Pali. 
Never had such an array of heroes gone down to the 
abode of "the great woman of the night." But 
they had fought well, they were gone to Paliuli, the 
Blue Mountain, the land of the divine waters of 
Kane, and as the sun set, men saw the great pro- 
cession of the dead in the western sky leaving the 
earth forever by the road of the gods. 

Kamehameha recalled with difficulty his vic- 
torious troops and now knew that there was, for 
the first time in Hawaiian history, one king in all 
the group, and that monarch was himself. Kauai, 
it is true, still remained unconquered, but the re- 
sistance there would amount to little and would 
speedily die away. 

So we may mark this April day of 1795 as a red- 
letter day in the story of Hawaii; — the day when 
all opposition to the dream of Kamehameha was 
broken down, and the Hawaiian chief commenced a 
reign no less remarkable than the struggle which 
had prepared the way. 

The enthusiasm of the veterans of Hawaii, and 
specially of the Kona chiefs who had been the 
pillars of Kaniehameha's house of fortune, might 
well be sufficient to drown even the auwe of the 
men of Oahu, and make them forget the dead for the 
living, the past defeat for the promise of future 
peace. 1 

1 Mr. Ellis seems under the impression that Kalanikapule 
died in the fight. He says: "The natives still point out the 
spot where the king of the island stood, when he hurled his 



250 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

last spear at the advancing foe, and received the fatal 
wound; and many, as they pass by, turn aside from the 
path, place their feet on the identical spot where he is said 
to have stood, assume the attitude in which he is supposed to 
have received his mortal wound, and poising their staff or 
their spear, tell their children or companions that there the 
last king of Oahu died defending his country from its invad- 
ing enemies." 

More authentic accounts say that after hiding for a time in 
the mountains of Koolau, Kalanikapule was captured in a 
cave just above Waipio. I^ike Saul, king of Israel, he could 
not live after he was fallen and his life was regarded, even by 
himself, as forfeited to the war-god. The ghastly sacrificial 
rite was carried out at Moanalua, and there Ku-kaili-moku 
received his prey* 



i 




XXVII 

KAMEHAMEHA ESTABLISHES HIS RULE 

"Enrich the time to come with smooth-fac'd peace, 
With smiling plenty and fair prosperous days, 

• ••*•#* 

Let them not live to taste this land's increase, 
That would with treason wound this fair land's peace! 
Now civil wounds are stopp'd, peace lives again: 
That she may long live here, God say Amen!" 

HEN the conqueror had completed the 
division of the lands of Oahu and had to 
some extent succeeded in appeasing the 
greed and ambition of his followers, his first im- 
pulse was to sail on to Kauai and make thoroughly 
good his claim to be considered king of all Hawaii. 
In order the better to carry his increasing store 
of artillery, he set his foreign carpenters to work 
to build for him a vessel of forty tons' burden. 
This ship-building was going on in February, 1796, 
when an English captain, not unlike Vancouver in 
spirit, — Captain Broughton, — came in the Provi- 
dence and anchored off Waikiki. Kamehameha, as 
usual, visited the ship in state, but signalized his 
new advance towards civilization by wearing, be- 
neath his feather cloak, an entire European suit of 
clothes, which added materially, if not to his com- 
fort, to his dignity, at all events in his own estima- 
tion. He made very handsome presents to Captain 
Broughton, but was persistent in his request for 

251 



252 THE NAPOLEON OP THE PACIFIC 

arms and ammunition. The captain, who had seen 
sufficiently the sad results of civil war in the islands, 
firmly refused to gratify this sinister appetite, thus 
following the good example of Vancouver. In other 
ways he was ready enough to be of service to his 
native hosts. 

One good work accomplished during this visit 
was the complete survey of the harbour of Hono- 
lulu, now made for the first time. 

But it was long before Kamehameha's hostile de- 
signs against Kauai became manifest to the Eng- 
lishman, and Broughton, who was profoundly im- 
pressed by the awful waste of life winch had taken 
place since he first visited the islands, and by the 
miserable condition of the people, set himself reso- 
lutely to dissuade Kamehameha from his ambitious 
design. The Hawaiian king, however, as we have 
already had occasion to note, was not easily diverted 
from a purpose which he had once deliberately en- 
tertained, even by foreigners whom he had learned 
to trust. So Broughton laboured in vain. He tells 
us that the conquerors seemed " intent upon noth- 
ing but seizing everything that they could grasp." 
With this sad conviction, he gave over what ap- 
peared to be a futile task and sailed for the north- 
west. 

April, 1796, arrived, and Kamehameha's schooner 
was still unfinished ; so the expedition was launched 
without it. A heiau was dedicated with human 
sacrifices in order to propitiate the divinities and 
insure success ; then the army and the canoes were 
moved to Waianae. It was from this place they 
started for their destination, distant only a few 
hours' journey. 



KAMEHAMEHA ESTABLISHES HIS RULE 253 

But this few hours' journey he was not destined 
to accomplish. Before his fleet was more than half- 
way across, it encountered an enemy against whom 
four-pounders were of no avail. A heavy storm 
swooped down upon them in mid-channel ; many of 
the canoes were capsized and their crews given to 
the sharks; and the rest were glad enough to find 
once more the friendly shores of Waianae. 

The suffering consequent upon the campaigns of 
the last two or three years was very evident in 
Oahu, but Kamehameha was not as yet moved to 
ameliorate it. He had many characteristics in 
common with William the Conqueror. One of these 
was that when he had subdued a district and was 
about to leave it for fresh fields, he would cause the 
whole stock of provisions in possession of the con- 
queror to be destroyed, so that the very pressure of 
famine might make insurrection impossible. So, 
prior to starting for Kauai, he destroyed the whole 
stock of hogs in Oahu. The consequences may be 
imagined. A famine ensued, aggravated by the 
fact that since the beginning of the war the lands 
had completely fallen out of cultivation. Nor was 
famine the only evil. William the Norman by 
cruel ravages first forced the people to theft and 
then jjunished them with barbarous forest laws. In 
the same way, Kamehameha first provoked the Oahu 
people to steal from the chiefs and relieve hunger by 
the breaking of kapus, and then punished them 
for their crime by measures of the most terrible 
severity, even proceeding to bury some of the of- 
fenders alive. 

But just at this time an event occurred which 
confirmed to the mind of Kamehameha his belief 



254 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

that, if he was to rule by force at all, no half meas- 
ures were likely to be successful. This was an 
alarming insurrection in Hawaii, where one would 
have thought that all opposition had long since 
died away. The brood of treason, however, is pro- 
lific, and hard to scotch. Namakeha, the brother of 
Kaiana, had been at work ever since his brother's 
death and, by enlisting in his cause the former 
partisans of Keoua, had succeeded in raising a very 
formidable rebellion. At the outset he seemed to 
carry everything before him. Kau, Puna and Hilo 
were overrun, and considerable damage was done 
before the startling news reached the king in Oahu. 

Surely this, if anything could be, was a test of 
Kamehameha's mettle. Could there be anything 
better calculated to discourage than to labour hard 
at a building all one's life, and then, just as the top- 
stone, which will make the edifice an eternal monu- 
ment of glory, is about to be placed with shouts of 
victory to feel the foundations crumbling? But 
Kamehameha knew that he had laid his foundations 
too securely for them to be disturbed by such as 
Namakeha. It was but a stone loose, and with 
characteristic stolidity and faith he faced the task 
before him. It was July, 1796, and Captain 
Broughton had just returned from Nootka Sound, 
having touched at Kealakekua Bay, where he was 
pleased to find that the cattle left by Vancouver had 
rapidly increased. So Kamehameha threw himself 
on Broughton's kindness and entreated him to give 
him a passage to Hawaii to put down the revolt. 
The captain, in obedience to the rules of the service, 
was obliged to decline. 

Here was another obstacle, but Kamehameha was 



KAMEHAMEHA ESTABLISHES HIS EULE 255 

not to be put down by the temporary frowning of 
fortune. His own shattered fleet was rapidly put 
in good condition and, in August, 1796, a large 
army embarked. 

They landed in the district of Hilo and soon came 
up with the rebels at a place called Kaipalaoa. It 
is almost needless to say that the raw recruits of 
Namakeha could make no effective stand against 
Kamehameha's veterans, and a complete victory 
was gained which had the happy result of bringing 
to an end all opposition to the king's supremacy. 

We have come, and (as it may safely be assumed ) 
to the reader's great relief, to the last of Kame- 
hameha's wars. Hainakeha was hunted down and 
offered in sacrifice at the heiau of Puuhonua, in 
Hilo, and with this sacrifice Kaili had to be con- 
tent for many a long year. 

No more was Kamehameha called upon to launch 
a spear in battle, or summon with the blast of the 
Kiha-pu his warriors around him. Henceforth we 
see the king not on the battle-field but in the council 
chamber, and he who has shown himself in war 
brave as Ajax will now make his appearance a 
statesman wise as Ulysses. 

No man ever assumed a new role with greater ease 
or greater success. What the " Iron Duke " did for 
England when, after having fought at Waterloo 
and secured peace with honour for his country, he 
found a second life of service as Prime Minister; 
what Grant did for America as the leader of her 
armies and as the President of the Republic, that 
Kamehameha did for the land in which his lot had 
been cast. 

But, before we come to the history of Kame- 



256 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

hamelia ? s statesmanship, there is another "last 
thing " which in a way is as significant as the cessa- 
tion of the battles. This was a murderous attack 
on some of Broughton's men at Mihau. The Provi- 
dence had been visited many times by Xamehameha, 
and the queen Kaahumanu even presented B rough- 
ton with a canoe in which she had lately attempted 
elopement. She had nearly succeeded in reaching 
Kauai when overtaken. The fickle dame perhaps 
thought that unless she gave away the canoe she 
might be tempted a second time, or possibly that 
she might be luckier with another boat. 

Broughton then went north and arrived at 
Mihau. The natives appeared friendly and he had 
no hesitation in sending the cutter, with only two 
armed mariners, for yams. But, oh, accursed lust 
of iron! The natives, perceiving the smallness of 
the party, immediately attacked and killed both the 
men. An armed party was sent to the assistance of 
the other men in the boat and, by way of punish- 
ment, the village was burned and sixteen canoes 
destroyed. Four natives were killed in the affray. 

This, as we have said, is the last affair of the 
kind which we meet with in the history of Hawaii 
and so becomes another mark of the transition 
through which the country was passing on its way 
from feudal anarchy to constitutional government. 

Kamehameha had become king and king he in- 
tended to be, not only in name but in fact. How he 
ruled and what he achieved it will now be our task 
to describe. 



xxvm 

SOCIAL ORGANIZATION UNDER THE 
MONARCHY 



a 



: Find in any country the Ablest Man that exists 
there; raise him to the supreme place, and loyally 
reverence him: you have a perfect government for 
that country; no ballot-box, parliamentary eloquence, 
voting, constitution building, or other machinery 
whatsoever can improve it a whit. 



ff 



THE transition from the heroic to the con- 
stitutional period of Hawaiian history is 
well marked, and perhaps the most re- 
markable feature of Kamehameha's career is the 
facility with which he threw aside the spear of the 
warrior to assume the sceptre of the administrator. 
Great changes had necessarily to be made and in 
order that we may understand them it is necessary 
to have some idea of the social condition of the 
country at and up to this time* 

The people as a whole were divided into four 
castes or classes : the chiefs, the priests, the citizens 
and the serfs. 

The head of the body social consisted of the alii, 
or chiefs. These possessed a sacred character as 
the descendants of the gods, and, by a process of 
natural selection, had become physically almost a 
separate race. It is easy, even to-day, when the 

257 



258 THE NAPOLEON OE THE PACIFIC 

old social distinctions have been obliterated, to tell 
the descendant of a chief from one of the common 
people. No one could rise to the rank of a chief and 
none could lose his rank by any process of degrada- 
tion. Once a chief, always a chief, was the rule, 
and the most ignominious defeat could not deprive 
a man of his hereditary distinction. So it hap- 
pened that when a chief was captured in battle he 
was as a rule slain or sacrificed to the gods. To 
spare him would but add to his humiliation. 

Among the people the chiefs were treated with 
all the reverence deemed due to those who were re- 
ported to be the progeny of the gods, and in league 
with spiritual powers. Their birth was announced 
by supernatural signs, such as thunder, lightning, 
rainbows, and meteors, and to the hour of their 
death they were marked off from the populace by 
an intricate system of compulsory etiquette. They 
had the right to wear the ivory clasp called the 
palaoa, the sacred feather wreath, and the red 
feather cloak and helmet, while their canoes were 
specially marked out by being painted red, with 
sails of red and a red pennon. Wherever a high 
chief went he was attended by all sorts of func- 
tionaries, and bore about with him his hokeo, a cala- 
bash trunk containing his baggage. In most cases 
this included the bones of the famous warriors 
slain by him in battle. These grim relics were often 
made the means of identifying a chief who landed 
upon a strange shore without other credentials. It 
is even said that the alii had a special language of 
their own, the words of which were changed from 
time to time as they became known to the common 
people. 



SOCIAL ORGANIZATION 259 

Next in order came the Icahunas, or priests, who 
were of several orders which were preserved from 
generation to generation by hereditary succession. 
The highest order was that whose descent was 
traced from Paao, the priest who, in an early period 
of Hawaiian history, came from Upolo in Samoa 
and introduced the puloulou, or kapu-stick, still 
represented upon the Hawaiian coins. The last 
official representative of this line was Hewahewa, 
the high priest at the close of Kamehameha's reign. 
It was this man who played the part of Coifi, in 
early Saxon history, by assisting the king, Kame- 
haineha II, in the destruction of the idols. 

The priesthood had great power over the people, 
as was natural from the fact that they were be- 
lieved to be in constant communication with the 
unseen powers. There was a very practical reason, 
too, in the fact that they had the selecting of the 
sacrifices to the gods. It was well to keep on good 
terms with such folk as these. Even the kings who 
ventured to quarrel with the priests generally came 
off second best in the end, and one of the most im- 
pressive of the island legends tells of the chief Hua 
who defied the priesthood and went mad. The ter- 
rible result of his sacrilegious opposition was 
summed up in the popular proverb : " Rattling are 
the bones of Hua in the sun." 

The duties of the priests varied according to the 
particular order to which they belonged. Some 
formed the colleges of learning and kept up the 
sciences and arts, such as astronomy, astrology, 
architecture and medicine. Some were depositories 
of the genealogies and traditions of the land, and 
were entrusted with the duty of preserving and 



260 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

teaching to the children the temple prayers, hymns, 
and ritual. Below these were orders employed in 
magic, such as the kilokilo, or diviners, the kahu- 
naanamia, or sorcerers, and the kahunalapmu, or 
wizard doctors. The priest with his hair hanging 
to his knees, his face wrinkled with age, and his 
deep-set eyes, was a very important member of 
society. 

The third class consisted of the large mass of free 
citizens who held land in feudal tenure from the 
chiefs under whom they fought in battle. 

Lastly, at the bottom of the social ladder, were 
the serfs, who had no rights and were simply human 
chattels, hewers of wood and drawers of water for 
all and each of the classes above them. 

Matters arising out of disputes between class and 
class, or between individual chiefs, were settled by 
a College of Heraldry whose work was of an inter- 
esting, complicated and delicate nature. 

All land was taxed to contribute to the support 
of the king and his court. The smallest division of 
land capable of being taxed was called an Hi; next 
came the ahapuaa, which had to contribute one hog 
monthly to the king ; then came the okana, a piece 
of land comprising several estates or villages; and 
lastly, the moku, which consisted of a whole island 
or district. 

The feudal system governed all relations between 
the various classes. Each class contributed its tax 
to the class immediately above it, and thence tribute 
was paid in bulk to the king. The material of 
taxation consisted of articles of food, such as hogs, 
fish, bananas, and sweet potatoes, kukui nuts with 
which to make torches, feathers with which to make 



SOCIAL OKGANIZATION 261 

cloaks and helmets, and calabashes in which to de- 
posit the food and treasures of the chiefs. Later 
on it included vast quantities of sandal-wood, which 
was so squandered in the trade with foreign nations 
that the tree, for purposes of trade, has by now 
become practically extinct. 

Besides this, there was a labour tax, by virtue of 
which certain days in every moon had to be em- 
ployed by the people in cultivating the taro patches 
of the chiefs. In addition to this, all public works 
demanded the free and unrewarded labour of the 
people, without distinction of class. Fish-ponds 
and heiaus absorbed an enormous amount of labour, 
owing to the difficulty of excavating and transport- 
ing the stone. 

Lastly, every district was subject to irregular de- 
mands such as were occasioned by the visit of a 
chief with relatives and retainers. When it is re- 
membered what a large retinue a prominent chief 
might bring with him, and the comprehensiveness 
of their needs, it may readily be understood that 
these irregular taxes were by no means the least 
irksome. It is no wonder that sometimes the in- 
habitants of a district became almost as restive un- 
der the inconveniently protracted attentions of one 
of their chiefs as the Kona people in general be- 
came during the sojourn of Captain Cook. 

The most radical changes made by Kamehameha 
in the government of the islands were in the direc- 
tion of centralizing all power in his own person. 
All the lands of the kingdom, he proclaimed, were 
his absolutely, by right of conquest. Everything 
the people possessed, their time, their labour, even 
their families, were his, and while the persons of 



262 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

his subjects were always at his disposal for military 
service, their property was his to be apportioned, as 
he chose, among his followers. 

The old system of district chiefs was regarded as 
dangerous, inasmuch as it left the chief the undis- 
puted monarch of a whole district, and afforded 
temptation and opportunity for rebellion. Kame- 
hameha had experienced the inconvenience of this 
method of distribution in the case of Keoua and 
Keawemauhili. So he minimized the chances of 
sedition by giving the chiefs land in detached por- 
tions, far apart, so that nowhere would one chief be 
strong enough to risk a show of disloyalty. 

For the same reason, he thought it good that the 
more ambitious and restless chiefs should have 
plenty to do around him, instead of being allowed to 
stay at home and meditate revolt. This was a piece 
of policy he may have learned of Alapainui, who 
was king in Hawaii when Kamehameha was a boy. 
At any rate, wherever the king went, the court was 
swelled by the attendance of the boldest warriors 
and highest alii in the land, among whom the king 
lavished his favours and commands. 

The court of Kamehameha was formidable alike 
in numbers and on account of the etiquette re- 
quired. Attendants of all kinds performed all 
sorts of duties. Kahili bearers gracefully waved 
their feather standards above the royal head ; spit- 
toon bearers were busy in their humbler way ; sleep 
watchers stood prepared to attend his majesty 
should he feel disposed to doze ; stewards kept cala- 
bashes full of provender at hand to tempt and ap- 
pease the royal appetite; massageurs were by his 
side to offer the grateful solace of lomilomi, should 



SOCIAL OKGANIZATION 263 

he feel fatigue. Or if the king were on business 
bent, here were the messengers ready to run leagues 
with his messages; here were the spies ready to 
ferret out the secrets of his enemies; here the 
prophets and astrologers ready to counsel him as to 
the decrees of fate ; and here were those very prac- 
tical servants, the executioners, ready to shed blood 
for their master's security or pleasure. Or again, 
should the king be disposed to relaxation, there in a 
moment were the musicians beating their drums or 
twanging their strings ; there were the hula dancers 
gliding forth with graceful but licentious move- 
ment ; there the buffoons to make his majesty merry ; 
there poets and historians to delight and instruct 
at once with the name-songs of olden heroes and 
the battle-lyrics of bygone days. 

Kamehameha's reign became famous for the at- 
tention devoted to the meles, or historical chants, 
and many a one which is still preserved we owe to 
the days of peace when the court of the king occu- 
pied itself with hearing and committing to memory 
the deeds of Kualii and the demi-gods of the pre- 
historic times. 

Altogether the etiquette of Kamehameha's court 
might not have proved uncongenial to the Grand 
Monarque. For every transgression there was one 
uniform penalty, — death. It was death to remain 
standing if the king's name were mentioned in a 
mele, so an audience must needs have been exceed- 
ingly attentive to the poets who sang their songs ; 
death, again, if you remained standing whilst the 
king's food or water or clothing was being carried 
by; death, once more, to wear any of the king's 
clothing. 



264 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

But why prolong the list of offenses? It is cer- 
tain that in these times the chance of living to a 
green old age was not brilliant, and the man who 
never crossed the king's shadow, or stood at an 
elevation above the king, or did this or that, or 
omitted to do this or that, certainly deserved never 
to die at all. 

Kamehameha kept up the court etiquette rigidly, 
believing that any relaxation of discipline would 
impair his influence. He also employed a large 
staff of informers and spies, preferring for this pur- 
X>ose the ladies of the court. He believed either that 
few men were so wise that they could not be re- 
vealed as foolish in the hands of the women, or else 
that few women were so incompetent as not to be 
able to twirl around their little finger the most 
reticent of conspirators. 

The trustiest men in the whole court were 
selected as Governors of the several islands, and 
their proved fidelity had much to do with the estab- 
lishment of the royal power on a solid basis. It is 
significant of this that when the monarch was shorn 
of much of his power by the Eevolution of 1887, the 
abolition of the governorships was one of the very 
first steps taken in framing the new constitution. 

In the appointment of Governors Kamehameha 
always had regard to fidelity and capacity rather 
than to rank. Indeed, he knew that a governor not 
of high rank would have so much less chance of be- 
coming the king's rival rather than his representa- 
tive. John Young was made Governor of Hawaii 
and proved a very able administrator, while Keeau- 
moku received the reward of his long and signal 
services by being created Governor of Maui. 



SOCIAL ORGANIZATION 265 

Tlie minor officials of the kingdom, such as tax- 
gatherers, heads of districts, district magistrates, 
and the like, were appointed by the Governors. At 
the court Kamehameha took no step without con- 
sulting the four great Kona chiefs, who had raised 
him from obscurity to supreme power. To these 
was now added Kalanimoku, "the iron cable of 
Hawaii," who acted as Treasurer and Prime Min- 
ister, and, in allusion to his distinguished services, 
received from the English sailors the alias of 
" William Pitt." 

Kamehameha preserved in his policy a judicious 
mean between the old traditional methods of gov- 
ernment and those such as western civilization was 
in due time to bring into force. 

With regard to the kapus, the king remained as 
strict as ever. He saw a most powerful engine of 
state in the respect paid by the people to traditional 
customs, and maintained the whole code, especially 
that part which hedged about the king's divinity, 
with the utmost severity. Barbarous as was the 
system, Kamehameha, from his own point of view, 
was undoubtedly right, and, until the Hawaiian 
had been enlightened by the introduction of the 
new law of the Gospel, it was certainly preferable 
for them to follow a harsh and capricious law rather 
than be given over altogether to moral anarchy. 
Kamehameha II probably did more harm than good 
by abolishing the kapus before the people had any- 
thing to put in their place. Negative and destructive 
work alone can never advance the morality of a 
nation, but may only expose it to those seven-fold 
worse evils which are always awaiting the per- 
mission to enter. 



266 THE NAPOLEON OP THE PACIFIC 

With regard to agriculture, Kamehameha showed 
himself thoroughly in earnest in promoting the true 
welfare of his subjects. Agriculture, it is true, was 
in a very primitive state. The earth brought forth 
so spontaneously and abundantly that very little 
labour was necessary to procure a crop of taro, 
yams, sugar-cane, bananas, gourds for calabashes, 
wauke for kapa cloth, awa for strong liquors, and 
the implements used did not go beyond the oo stick 
of hard wood, sharpened at one end and flattened 
like a spade at the other, with which to break up 
the harder clods. 

Yet, on occasion, very extensive works were car- 
ried on. Terraces were built on the slopes of the 
mountains, the taro-patches were banked round to 
retain the water, and ditches for irrigation were 
constructed which were miles in length. All these 
works Kamehamelia encouraged by every means in 
his power, in order that the ravages of war might 
be as speedily as possible repaired. 

To the same end he adopted strong measures for 
the extermination of the bands of brigands, thieves 
and murderers, who had taken advantage of the 
disturbed condition of the country to establish their 
dens in various localities. By and by it could be 
said, as it was said of Saxon England at the close 
of Alfred's reign, that " the old men and the chil- 
dren could sleep unharmed on the highways." 

In dealing with foreigners Kamehameha dis- 
played uniformly the most remarkable shrewdness, 
intelligence and tact. Mr. Ellis relates that the 
king on many occasions prevented the murderous 
intents of certain chiefs from being carried into 
effect against the sailors, and it was his constant 



SOCIAL OBGANIZATION 267 

endeavour to show every mark of friendship to 
those who visited his dominions, rendering to the 
captains who touched at his ports the promptest 
and most acceptable aid. He had learned, while 
on Hawaii, during the truce with Keoua, to what 
profit the visits of the foreign ships could be turned, 
and now that the opportunity was afforded him, he 
took care to turn his experience to practical ac- 
count. So he protected the white men wherever 
they chose to stay, showed them abundant hos- 
pitality, set an example of fair dealing, and soon 
gained such confidence that a considerable and 
legitimate trade was established between Hawaii 
and the continents bordering on either side of the 
Pacific. 

To this enviable reputation he owed not a little 
of the peace and prosperity which characterized the 
remainder of his reign. 



XXIX 

SOJOURN IN HAWAII FROM 1796 TO 1802 

"No more the thirsty entrance of this soil 
Shall daub her lips with her own children's blood; 
No more shall trenching war channel her fields, 
Nor bruise her flowerets with the armed hoofs 
Of hostile paces: those opposed eyes, 
Which, like the meteors of a troubled heaven, 
All of one nature, of one substance bred, 
Did lately meet in the intestine shock 
And furious close of civil butchery, 
Shall now, in mutual, well-beseeming ranks, 
March all one way and be no more oppos'd." 

THE immediate occasion of Kamehameha's 
visit to Hawaii was, as we have seen, the 
suppression of the revolt of Namakeha, 
but, this accomplished, he stayed on in various parts 
of the island, principally in Hilo, for the greater 
part of six years. Hawaii, the island of his birth, 
was also the home of his affections, as well as the 
largest and, up to this time, the most important part 
of his dominions. Thus the king found ample em- 
ployment in making the tour of the districts, en- 
couraging people in the construction of fish-ponds 
and taro-patches, and in the erection of heiaus for 
the worship of the gods. 

But what occupied his energies most of all was 
the building of a flotilla of ships and canoes in 

268 



SOJOUEN m HAWAII FEOM 1796 TO 1802 269 

which, he might be able to pay his anticipated visit 
to Kauai. Nowhere was there in the islands better 
material for this than in the dense forests behind 
the village of Hilo, and here, week after week and 
month after month, the woods echoed with the 
crash of falling trees, from which might be fash- 
ioned the peleleu, or war canoes, such as the king 
desired. But Kamehameha was no longer satisfied 
with the open canoes which had contented his fore- 
fathers and, under the direction of a white carpen- 
ter, James Boyd, the natives succeeded in building 
several small decked vessels such as were more in 
accord with the ambitious views of the monarch. 

The ships were equipped with all sorts of stores 
obtained by all sorts of devices and at all sorts of 
times. For instance, the wreck of Captain Barber's 
ship, Arthur, on what has since been known as Bar- 
ber's Point, proved quite a godsend, inasmuch as it 
provided one or two more cannon for the royal 
armament. In such ways as this Kamehameha's 
fleet grew to a formidable size. 

It was at this time that the incident occurred 
which showed that the king, with all his barbarity 
and revengeful disposition, could yet occasionally 
exhibit a generous and forgiving spirit. One day 
there were brought into Kamehameha's presence the 
fishermen of Puna who in the skirmish of 1783, al- 
ready referred to, had so nearly diverted the stream 
of history by beating the king about the head with 
a paddle. In accordance with the barbarous custom 
of the time, their wives and children were dragged 
with them to share whatever punishment might be 
awarded. There was little doubt in the minds of 
those who stood by that the punishment would be 



270 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

death, and the courtiers suggested, perhaps with an 
eye to their own pleasureable participation in the 
performance, that the culprits should be stoned. 
Greatly, however, to their surprise and doubtless to 
the surprise of the fisherfolk themselves, Kame- 
hameha released the men unharmed, and immedi- 
ately after published a decree known as Mamalahoe, 
" the decree of the splintered paddle/' forbidding, 
under penalty of death, any of those wanton raids 
such as that in which he had so nearly come to grief. 

This was a great victory for the king, since it had 
been gained over himself. Kings are not always so 
willing to pass retrospective judgment upon their 
own escapades. We may be quite sure that if the 
incident created surprise, the surprise, to the Puna 
people at least, was a truly pleasant emotion. 

The most important event in connection with 
Kaniehameha's stay at Hilo was the birth of an heir 
to the throne. Sons the king had already in plenty, 
some of them grown up, but all these were out of the 
question so far as the succession was concerned, be- 
cause of the comparatively low birth of their 
mothers. Kaahumanu had, we may remember, 
made a bargain on her marriage that her own chil- 
dren were to be considered heirs to the exclusion of 
all others, but Providence had not blessed this lady 
with the issue she desired. However, Keopuolani, 
the latest wife of Kamehameha, fulfilled in every re- 
spect the requirements of a queen-mother. She had 
in her veins, as we have seen, the very bluest blood 
in all the islands, such rank as the king himself was 
fain to acknowledge on public occasions by ap- 
proaching her upon his knees; she connected him 
also with the ancient and legitimate royal line ; and 



SOJOURN W HAWAII FEOM 1796 TO 1802 271 

now, to crown all, in the year 1797 she presented 
him with a son through whom the dynasty might be 
carried on after his decease. The only circumstance 
which had anything of the nature of a contretemps 
was that the birth took place at Hilo instead of at 
Ewa. For as there was a proper place for chiefs to 
be buried, there was also a place in which it was 
meet that high chiefs should be born. This was 
Kukaniloku, an ancient sanctuary built by Nana- 
maoa, in the Ewa district of Oahu. Chiefs born here 
were born to rule, " born in the purple," and were 
entitled to rank as the very highest Icapu chiefs. In 
the sanctuary of Kukaniloku hung the sacred drum, 
Hawea, and whenever the sound of this startled the 
inhabitants of the village, it was known at once that 
a chief was born destined to play a conspicuous part- 
in the drama of his country's history. 

It had been Kamehameha's fond design, prescient 
in this as in other matters, to fulfill every require- 
ment of Hawaiian superstition, and to have his heir 
born in the auspicious spot. But his intentions were 
frustrated by the sudden illness of Keopuolani, and 
the young prince had to be content with Hilo as a 
birthplace. In this respect he was no worse off than 
many of his betters, and had he proved as strong 
and as brave as some of his Hilo-born progenitors, 
he might still have made a much kinglier figure than 
he did as the first successor to the illustrious 
founder of the line. 

Disappointed as Kamehameha may have been at 
his son's birthplace being as it was, he was still 
vastly pleased to have an heir and delayed no longer 
than the boy's fifth year in proclaiming him heir- 
apparent, consecrating him to that position in the 



272 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

temples by all the sacred rites known to the priest- 
hood. The boy was named Kalaninuiliholiho, " the 
great blackness of the heavens," but for short he was 
generally called Liholiho, and afterwards Kame- 
hameha II. 

It may have been set down by the people to some 
divine participation in the above-mentioned rites 
that in the year 1801 a terrible eruption from the 
crater of Hualalai, in the Kona district, occurred. 
Perhaps it was the fairy godmother Pele coming to 
the baptism of Liholiho as heir, or perhaps, foresee- 
ing that the boy was destined to abolish her cult, she 
was endeavouring to give him some taste of her dis- 
pleasure. Hualalai is a crater upwards of 8,000 
feet high in the western part of Hawaii, in North 
Kona, a district not nearly so actively volcanic as 
some other parts of the island. So much the greater 
therefore was the consternation of the people when 
suddenly the lava streams burst forth from the 
western slope of the mountain and rolled down in a 
fiery tide towards the Nawili Point. The fish-pond 
of Paiea was swallowed up by the devouring ele- 
ment, villages and cocoanut groves were swept be- 
fore it and, as it rolled on to the sea, it threatened 
to spread out in a broad sheet of pahoelwe and lick 
up all the country in its fiery jaws. Sacrifices were 
made to Pele in vain, holocausts of hogs made no 
difference to the irate goddess, and but one hope re- 
mained. This was that Kamehameha, the friend of 
Pele, should come and exert his influence with the 
'deity and stop the lava flow. Kamehameha came 
and, cutting off some of his hair, which was es- 
teemed peculiarly sacred, offered this as a peace- 
offering to the goddess. Whether this was the love- 



SOJOURN IN HAWAII FROM 1798 TO 1802 273 

lock for which, the capricious Pele had been pining 
or not we cannot tell, but certain it is that, a day or 
two after, the tide of fire stayed its course and the 
villagers of North Kona once more breathed a little 
freely. Never since that day has Hualalai ventured 
to open its fiery mouth. 

Shortly after this Kamehameha, fearing perhaps 
that Pele might be claiming locks of hair in other 
places besides Hualalai and so leave him bald, left 
the island of volcanoes for the middle land of Maui. 



XXX 

KAMEHAMEHA STAYS AT LAHAINA 

"The sunrise broken into scarlet shafts 
Among the palms, and ferns and precipices; 
The blaze upon the waters to the east; 
The blaze upon the island overhead; 
The blaze upon the waters to the west; 
Then the great stars that globed themselves in heaven t 
The hollower bellowing ocean, and again 
The scarlet shafts of sunrise." 

KAMEHAMEHA, in visiting Lahaina, was 
coming to a town which, had been for many 
generations a royal court. In olden times 
it was called Lele, and it was here that Kakaalaneo 
first planted the bread-fruit tree which now flour- 
ishes so well in the locality. In 1793 Vancouver's 
description of " Raheina" as he calls it, shows that 
the inter-island wars had seriously impaired its for- 
mer beauty and importance. He says : 

"The village of Eaheina is of some extent to- 
wards the northwest part of the roadstead. It 
seemed to be pleasantly situated on a space of low or 
rather gently elevated land in the midst of a grove 
of bread-fruit, cocoanut and other trees. To the 
eastward the country seemed nearly barren and un- 
cultivated, and the shores were bounded by a reef 
on which the surf seemed to break with so much 

274 



KAMEHAMEHA STAYS AT LAHAINA 275 

force as to preclude any landing with our boats. In 
the village the houses seemed to be numerous and to 
be well inhabited. A few of the natives visited the 
ships ; these brought but little with them and most 
of them were in very small and miserable canoes. 
These circumstances strongly indicated their pov- 
erty, and proved what had been frequently asserted 
at Owhyhee that Mo wee and its neighbouring islands 
were reduced to great indigence by the wars in 
which for many years they had been engaged." 

The present writer would like to give Lahaina a 
much better character, though it is no longer so im- 
portant as when it was the headquarters of the 
North Pacific whale fishery, and though the heat is 
at times more oppressive than anywhere else in the 
islands. But no change of fortune can take away 
the delight of the bathing on that wonderful coral 
beach, or the glories of the marvellous sunsets, with 
all the sky between Lanai and Molokai glowing 
with gold and crimson as the purple shadows of the 
islands deepen into the dark. And then, what un- 
surpassable valleys lie behind the town, valleys 
which open up a land of delicious coolness, a wilder- 
ness of fruits and flowers, a paradise of ferns, a land 
of rushing waters. Just out of Lahaina, the scenery 
is such as is often depicted in views of Palestine. 
Enormous boulders of stone, perpetually recurring 
streamlets or dry torrent beds, low scraggy bushes, 
clumps of hukui, or candle-nut tree, with silvery 
foliage, — all makes a picturesque foreground for the 
magnificent mountains illuminated with all the 
glory of the Hawaiian sunlight. 

Well, it was to a spot thus favoured by nature 
and rich in historic and legendary association that 



276 THE NAPOLEON OP THE PACIFIC 

Kainehameha came in 1802 on a state visit, attended 
by the host of peleleu which had been constructed 
during his long sojourn at Hilo. 

A suitable residence had already been prepared, 
since, a year or two before, two foreigners had built 
for the king a two-story brick house, a wonderful 
edifice in the native eyes. This building, known as 
the Brick Palace, stood for over seventy years on 
the site of the present market. It was a well-built 
structure, forty feet by twenty, divided on each 
floor into four rooms by well-boarded partitions. In 
the next reign it was used as a warehouse. So de- 
lighted was Kamehameha with this new abode that 
he stayed here over a year, making Lahaina the 
headquarters from whence he collected the trees 
from the people of Lanai, Maui and the adjacent 
islands. At Wailuku the taxes were paid on a 
square rock in the middle of the Iao Eiver by all who 
crossed the stream. All kinds of goods were re- 
ceived, some paying in kapa, or mats, or baskets, 
and some in dogs, hogs, fowl or fish. 

The king also filled up the time by consecrating 
many heiaus in different parts of the island, using 
the customary barbarous rites and training his 
youthful heir to participate in the various func- 
tions of royalty. A favourite Maui idol which 
gained much attention at the time was Keoloewa, a 
wooden image clothed in white Icapa, with the head 
and neck formed of wickerwork and covered with 
red feathers to resemble the skin of a bird. On the 
head was a native helmet, and long tresses of human 
hair hung down over the shoulders. With the usual 
large distended mouth, it was not a pleasing deity 
to view. 



KAMEHAMEHA STAYS AT LAHAINA 277 

It was while at Lahaina, moreover, that Kame- 
hameha became the proud possessor of a new ac- 
complishment, that of riding on horseback. 

In May, 1803, Captain Cleveland, who was on his 
way from California to China, landed on the islands 
and brought with him the first specimens of the 
equine race the natives had ever seen. He landed a 
mare and foal at Kawaihae, in Hawaii, as a present 
for John Young, and, two days later, conscious no 
doubt that it would not do to honour the subordinate 
without remembering the superior, he sent a horse 
and mare for the king. The lio, as the animals were 
called, excited unbounded admiration and in the 
king's heart a new ambition was conceived. Kame- 
hameha was well advanced in years, but he was not 
to be conquered, and, however amusing his first at- 
tempts at horsemanship may have been, he suc- 
ceeded ere long in becoming a thoroughly good 
equestrian. 

At the present day all Hawaiians are good horse- 
men, riding down some of the most dangerous polls 
with little or no diminution of speed. Drunken 
men, with arms and legs moving like the sails of a 
windmill, will gallop about recklessly, and yet by a 
miracle never seem to fall off. From childhood the 
boys and girls take to the wiry little mountain 
steeds as they take to the sea, and it is a picturesque 
sight to watch a company of men in scarlet shirts 
and garlanded straw hats, and women in the long, 
flowing, yellow pau, riding out on some moonlight 
excursion. It is interesting, as we watch, to remem- 
ber that in this, as in so many other things, Kame- 
hameha, old as he was, led the way. 

Yet with all his vigour there were at this time 



278 THE NAPOLEON OP THE PACIFIC 

several reminders of the lapse of years and of the 
inevitable passing away of earthly things. 

First, came the death of his old friend Kameeia- 
moku, at a good old age, at Puuki, in Lahaina. He 
had been a brave and faithful soldier, counsellor 
and friend, and left a son equally devoted, the well- 
known chief Hoapili, who was afterwards entrusted 
with the disposal of Kamehameha's bones. 

A still greater loss came in the death of the 
" Crab of the Evening," the illustrious Keeaumoku, 
who passed away in 1804. His restless heart had 
found its ideal at last, the kingmaker had found 
and acknowledged his king, and now, as Governor 
of the Windward Islands, he passed peacefully away 
from the scene of his many vicissitudes, according 
to the prophecy of Keaulumoku. There was great 
grief through all the land, and part of the dirge 
which was sung in his memory has been preserved 
by Mr. Ellis, as follows : 

"Alas, alas, dead is my chief, 
Dead is my lord and my friend ; 
My friend in the season of famine, 
My friend in the time of drought, 
My friend in my poverty, 
My friend in the rain and the wind, 
My friend in the heat of the sun, 
My friend in the cold from the mountains, 
My friend in the storm, in the calm, 
My friend in the eight seas, 
Alas, alas, gone is my friend, 
And no more will return.' ' 

With singular appropriateness might we place 
these words into the mouth of Kamehameha, for 
every expression is literally true. 



XXXI 

RETURN TO OAHU 

"Thus great in glory from the din of war 
Safe he return' d without one hostile scar." 

T may have been the death of his old friend 
Keeaumoku which caused Kamehameha to de- 
sire a change of scene. At any rate, soon after 
the sad funeral rites, the king gathered together his 
fleet and army and sailed once more for Oahu. 

The fleet was at this time of no mean propor- 
tions. Besides all the canoes which connected with 
the olden times, there were about twenty small ves- 
sels of from twenty to forty tons burden, some of 
them copper bottomed. For a schooner and a sum 
of money he also obtained from a Mr. Shales a brig 
of 175 tons. This vessel, the Lelia Byrd, had been 
aground in California and leaked badly, but was 
eagerly seized by the king as a means of undertak- 
ing, on his own account, a little trade with China. 
The king's carpenter, George McClay, put in the 
ship a new keel, and nearly re-planked her, and she 
afterwards made two or three voyages to China 
with cargoes of sandalwood. Finally, she sank 
near Canton and the king's trading venture came to 
an untimely end. 

It may be surmised that Kamehameha had not 
entirely forgotten that Kauai was still nominally 
independent. Indeed, the anxiety to recruit the fleet 

279 



280 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

had been in great part due to the desire to take pos- 
session of the " garden of the north." In 1805 the 
preparations to this end were pushed on most vigor- 
ously and the coveted isle would doubtless have 
been compelled to yield but for another intervention 
of the powers unseen through which the expedition 
was postponed and almost half the army destroyed. 
This mysterious visitation was the great pesti- 
lence, known as the Mai Ohuu, which broke out 
among the troops and spread with such alarming 
rapidity that nearly half the army perished. It is 
impossible to say exactly what the disease was, but 
it is believed to have been cholera. Kamehameha 
himself was attacked but recovered, only, however, 
to mourn the death of more of his staunch friends 
and counsellors. Indeed, only Kalanimoku was now 
left, and the king must have returned to his task 
saddened by the feeling that his own work was al- 
most over. The death of his great chiefs was half 
his own death: like Arthur in the "Idylls" he 
might have said : 



"And they, my knights, who loved me once, the stroke 
That strikes them dead is as my death to me.' 



jy 



Two years later, or less, another misfortune came 
in the alarming illness of Queen Keopuolani. She 
was staying at Waikiki when she was attacked and 
the kahuna who was called in declared that her sick- 
ness was sent by the gods, who had been offended be- 
cause certain men had partaken of the Jcapu cocoa- 
nuts. It appears rather hard that the offense should 
have been visited upon the innocent queen, but it 
shows how thoroughly every one believed in the 



BETUKN TO OAHU 281 

solidarity- of tiie nation and its unity of interest, that 
no one could sin without the whole body of the peo- 
ple sharing the suffering. But Kainekameha, like 
Joshua in the case of Achan, was swift to avenge the 
iniquitous act which had produced such far-reach- 
ing consequences. Ten men were seized as victims, 
and would undoubtedly have been slain had not the 
queen recovered almost as suddenly as she had been 
taken ill. In such case the king was bound to show 
leniency, so he only executed three out of the ten 
who had been arrested. Pour encourager les autres, 
they were sacrificed in the heiau at the foot of 
Leahi, or Diamond Head. 

We are able to form some idea of the king's style 
of living at this time from the description given by 
Mr. Alexander Campbell, a Scotch sailor who ar- 
rived about 1809 and spent about a year in Oahu. 
He gives one of the first descriptions of Honolulu 
that we possess. 

It was a village, he says, of several hundred huts, 
well shaded with groves of cocoanut trees. Close to 
the shore was the king's house, surrounded by a 
strong palisading, and distinguished from the adja- 
cent dwellings by the British colours hoisted from 
the house, and by a battery of sixteen carriage guns 
which belonged to the Lelia Byrd. The ship itself, 
meanwhile, lay unrigged in the harbour. " At a 
short distance," he adds, "were two large store- 
houses built of stone, which contained the European 
articles belonging to the king." The royal fleet was 
hauled up high and dry on Waikiki beach, and 
sheds were built over them to protect them from 
the sun and rain. One small sloop was employed as 
a kind of packet-boat to ply between Oahu and 



282 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

Hawaii, in order to keep the king in touch with all 
parts of his dominions. Captain Harbottle, an old 
resident, we are told, generally acted as pilot. 

From Campbell we also learn of the singular 
scene which was witnessed when Kamehameha's fa- 
vourite brother, Keliimaikai, " the good chief," went 
the way of all flesh in this same year, 1809. 

A great funeral was always an occasion for un- 
restrained anarchy and license, and though this 
time the license was more moderate than was the 
rule in previous reigns, still the conduct of the 
natives was most frightful and revolting. The 
knocking out of teeth and the general wailing were 
but mild manifestations of the universal grief ; there 
was a general casting off of clothing and all the 
ordinary restraints of decency were forgotten wan- 
tonly and completely. 

It might have been expected that Kamehameha 
would have taken precautions to stop so shocking 
an exhibition, but when appealed to by the captains 
of the foreign vessels in port, he replied that such 
was the law and it was impossible for him to alter 
it. Probably he was right. It was only by long ex- 
perience of true civilization that the Hawaiian s 
would be able to gain such control over their feel- 
ings as would enable them to mourn like men rather 
than like distracted children. Even a generation or 
so ago it was possible to see exhibitions of frenzied 
grief among the natives which were but a little re- 
moved from the madness of the old heathen days. 

Kamehameha had had so many griefs of late that 
he may be excused if he speedily forgot them and 
turned himself once more to the task of govern- 
ment. 



EETUBN TO OAHU 283 

In 1810 the British man-of-war Duke of Portland, 
under Captain Spence, visited the islands, and 
Kainehameha bethought himself of all that Great 
Britain had promised him through Vancouver. No, 
not of all, for he seems to have overlooked the prom- 
ise of the missionaries, and remembered only the 
promise as to ships and guns. So he brought on 
board a magnificent feather cloak to be taken as a 
present to King George III, and dedicated a letter 
to the same monarch reminding him pointedly of 
Vancouver's promise to send him a vessel with brass 
guns. 

It is interesting to note this little episode which 
connects the two kings. Separated as they were by 
ten thousand miles of sea and land, Kamehameha 
and George III were almost exactly contempora- 
neous. Yet, what a contrast between "Farmer 
George " and the " Napoleon of the Pacific " ! Per- 
haps if they could have changed places, a king of 
England, leading his armies in person, would have 
tasked the genius and courage of the Corsican and 
outshone the lustre of the " Iron Duke." 



XXXII 

THE CESSION OF KAUAI 

"The man is noble, and his fame folds in 
This orb o' the earth." 

KAUAI, "the garden of Hawaii," had, with 
its island satellite Mihau, so far remained 
outside the dominion of Kamehameha. The 
exception, as we have seen, was due more to the 
compelling force of storm and pestilence than to 
the prowess of the Kauai warriors. But Kame- 
hameha was another Bruce in pertinacity and, hav- 
ing marched so far towards his goal, he was not 
likely to give up at the last lap. So far from this, 
every period of leisure allowed him by his other 
duties only intensified his longing to gain posses- 
sion of the garden isle. 

The ruler of Kauai was at this time the chief 
Kaumualii, who as a youth had attracted the fa- 
vourable notice of Vancouver. For some time this 
able chief had been under the tutelage of the wily 
Inamoo, but he had now taken the reins of govern- 
ment into his own hands and was justifying all the 
promise of his early years. It was testified of him 
by Mr. Stewart, a missionary, that " he never knew 
of a word or action of his that was unbecoming a 
prince, or even inconsistent with the character of a 
pious man." Brave in war and the best surf-swim- 

284 



THE CESSION OF KAUAI 285 

mer in the islands, as well as the only Hawaiian of 
his time able to read and write, he seemed predes- 
tined to success. 

His success, however, did not lead him into a 
fooPs paradise. He was intelligent enough to per- 
ceive that however well drilled and armed his war- 
riors might be, they were in no respect equal to 
those of Kamehameha. He was not blind to the 
ultimate destiny of his island realm, and even seems 
to have contemplated flight to the American conti- 
nent in the last extremity, for he ordered the me- 
chanics in his employ to build him a ship in which, 
if need were, he could leave the land of his fathers of 
which fortune threatened to dispossess him. 

Meanwhile, however, he contented himself with 
negotiations and on several occasions sent presents 
and messages to the conqueror of Oahu. Kame- 
hameha reciprocated in friendly fashion, but al- 
lowed the young chief to see that the surrender of 
Kauai was necessary before peace could be regarded 
as secure. 

At last Kaumualii, feeling the hopelessness of de- 
fending his patrimony by force, sent his cousin 
Kamahalolani to Oahu charged with the task of ap- 
proaching Kamehameha and laying before him an 
acknowledgment of feudal dependence. 

The submission was not quite abject enough for 
the proud spirit of Kamehameha, and he demanded 
that the Kauai chief, instead of treating through 
ambassadors, should come himself and in person 
make the cession of the islands. On his own part, 
he assured Kaumualii, there need be no fear as to 
his safety. For that he would pledge his honour. 

Unfortunately, the memory of Keoua's end on the 



286 THE NAPOLEON OP THE PACIFIC 

beach of Hawaii was not yet faded from the minds of 
men, and Kaumualii may be excused for doubting 
whether Kamehameha's honour was a sufficient 
pledge with such a matter at stake. Happily, how- 
ever, another pledge was forthcoming, thanks to 
Kaumualii's friendly relations with the white men. 
Among the foreigners then in Kauai was a genial 
American captain, Jonathan Windship, engaged in 
the sandalwood traffic. He had been attracted to 
Kaumualii by his intelligence, as shown by the al- 
ready mentioned fact that he was the only native 
who could read and write. He was desirous, more- 
over, of terminating the long hostility which, though 
smothered, still smouldered unintermittingly be- 
tween the chiefs of Hawaii and Kauai, and foresaw, 
in the union of the islands, security for good govern- 
ment such as was otherwise impossible. So Captain 
Windship came to Kaumualii and counselled him to 
sail with him to Honolulu to meet Kamehameha. 
His presence as passenger on a white man's ship 
would to a certain extent minimize the risk of 
treachery and, to show that he considered the risk 
of the very slightest, he left behind in Kauai his 
mate as a surety for the life of his charge. 

With this arrangement Kaumualii was content, 
and in due course arrived in Honolulu. Here Kame- 
hameha acted in the most generous and honourable 
manner. He came on board the ship as soon as it 
reached Oahu, and when Kaumualii had laid the 
lordship of the island at his feet, bade him rise and 
remain Governor of Kauai for the rest of his life, on 
the one condition that he recognized Kamehameha 
as his feudal lord and Liholiho as his heir and suc- 
cessor. 



THE CESSION OP KAUAI 287 

Kaumualii was then induced to land and was 
treated with the greatest consideration and hospi- 
tality. But Kamehameha in this negotiation showed 
himself infinitely superior to the chiefs who sur- 
rounded him. They could not endure the thought 
of Kaumualii going back on such easy terms. It 
was to them gall and wormwood that this chief, 
after so prolonged a resistance, was returning home 
in peace, and they perhaps saw in his friendliness 
with the whites a possible menace to the continued 
prestige of their king. So, going to Kamehameha, 
they endeavoured by the use of every specious art to 
obtain permission for the assassination of their 
guest. To his honour, Kamehameha indignantly re- 
fused and the chiefs retired baffled and confused. 

But even Kamehameha's refusal was not suffi- 
cient to induce them to forego their murderous de- 
sign, and Kaumualii would doubtless even yet have 
fallen a victim but for the vigilance of the white 
chief, Isaac Davis. Hawaiian chiefs knew other 
ways of dealing out death beside open assassination, 
and when Kaumualii was invited to partake of a 
sumptuous luau, or feast, spread for him on the 
beach of Waikahulu, it was intended that a poisoned 
calabash should do the work as easily and effectu- 
ally as the blood-drinking spear. Davis, however, 
heard of the plot and sent the prince a warning. 

So it came to pass that the chiefs sat down to 
their feast, eagerly expecting the guest in whose 
honour the banquet had been spread. But, lo, in- 
stead of Kaumualii, there came a messenger who 
reported that Captain Windship had been obliged 
to sail at short notice, and that the princely visitor 
had gone back to his home in Kauai. It is needless 



288 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

to say that from this moment the feast lost its 
savour, and the pleasurable anticipation of Kau- 
mualii's sudden illness and mysterious death had to 
remain unfulfilled. 

The only unhappy sequel of the incident was the 
discovery that the good intentions of the chiefs had 
been betrayed by Isaac Davis. It was no doubt in 
revenge for this that, shortly after, in April, 1810, 
this able and humane counsellor himself met the 
fate from which he had saved the hereditary ruler 
of Kauai. 



XXXIII 

DEVELOPMENT OF TRADE AND ITS EFFECTS 

"Now I see 



Peace to corrupt, no less than war to waste. 



>> 



THE last years of Kamehameha's reign were 
years of great advance in trade with for- 
eign nations. The king, as we have seen 
previously, had keen commercial instincts and was 
not slow to perceive the advantages his country 
might derive from the fostering of foreign trade. 

Unfortunately, instead of developing the re- 
sources of his country, he, in many instances, ex- 
hausted them and obtained in exchange merchan- 
dise of somewhat doubtful value to the people, such 
as guns, ammunition, liquors, silks, and other lux- 
uries from the Oriental world, for which, it may be 
surmised, he gave a good deal more than the real 
value. 

The exhaustion of the national resources is illus- 
trated by the sandalwood trade, which for fifteen 
or twenty years continued to be the staple export 
trade of the Hawaiian Islands. 

Eighty or ninety years ago, the sandalwood tree 
{tantalum elMpticum), or Iliahi, as the natives 
called it, was common throughout the islands. It 
was a straight, handsome tree, from fifty to eighty 
feet high, and from two to three feet in diameter at 

289 



290 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

the base. Its hard, fragrant wood, increasing in 
fragrance with age, was known to the natives as 
laauala, and was the first article of commerce which 
attracted trade to the islands. The trade was with 
China, where an immense quantity of the wood was 
sold for use in the manufacture of incense, or to be 
carved into boxes and fancy articles. It was bought 
by the picul of a hundred and thirty-three and a 
half pounds, and the price varied from $8 to $10. 
Everywhere the people groaned under the labour 
tax which compelled them to spend their time in 
the forests and among the mountains cutting san- 
dalwood. Even in the next reign the missionaries 
relate that they passed through villages almost de- 
populated, owing to the inhabitants being all away 
in the mountains for sandalwood. They had to 
search for the coveted timber, fell it, cut it into 
pieces eighteen inches in diameter and from six to 
eight feet long, and then, like so many packhorses, 
carry their loads down to the royal storehouses, 
where, in spite of the enormous quantities des- 
patched to the Canton market, as much again was 
suffered to rot and decay. It was inevitable that 
with no attempt to replenish the forests from which 
the sandalwood was hewn that such wastefulness 
would in time bring about a cure not to the advan- 
tage of the royal revenues. After a time, when the 
evil fruit was almost mature, an attempt was made 
to prevent further deforestation by placing a Jcapu 
on the remaining trees, but matters had gone so far 
that the trade died a natural death, and has never 
been revived. Only a few trees, since Kame- 
hameha's death, have appeared here and there in 
the forests. 



DEVELOPMENT OF TKADE 291 

There was, however, another trade which, unfor- 
tunately for the islands, seemed little likely to be 
self -exhausting, viz. — the liquor traffic, which more 
than anything else has ministered to the deteriora- 
tion and demoralization of the native races of the 
Pacific and counteracted the efforts made for their 
civilizing and Christianizing. 

Before the coming of the white man neither fer- 
mented nor distilled liquors were known to the Ha- 
waiians. The only indulgence resembling that in 
spirituous liquors was the awa-drmkmg custom. 
Awa was made from an infusion of the roots of the 
awa plant (Piper methysticum) , which is still ex- 
tensively cultivated. It was first chewed and then 
placed in a large calabash of water, where it was 
allowed to remain for some time, and then strained. 
After this it was ready for drinking. But the con- 
sumption seems to have been almost more cere- 
monial than social, like the drinking of Soma in 
India, and was apparently confined to the chiefs 
and priests. The plant was of too slow a growth to 
be easily obtainable by the common people. It was 
also used medicinally to cure skin diseases and pre- 
vent corpulency. The difficulty of making it in any 
large quantity was sufficient to prevent its working 
extensive moral harm. The effect of drinking awa, 
moreover, was narcotic and stupifying, but not in 
the strict sense of the word intoxicating. 

But the coming of the white man linked the Ha- 
waiian not only with the blessings but also with the 
curses of civilization, and, as the weeds grow more 
luxuriantly than the flowers, so the curses natural- 
ized themselves in the soil more rapidly than the 
blessings. 



292 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

Before 1800, some Botany Bay convicts intro- 
duced into the islands the knowledge of distilling, 
and grateful posterity has recorded the name of one 
William Stevenson as the first practitioner of the 
art. 

Professor Alexander gives the following account 
of the method employed : 

" The root of the hi plant ( Cordyline terminalis ) 
was first baked for days in the ground, after 
which it became very sweet. It was then macerated 
in a canoe with water to ferment, and in 1iYe or six 
days was ready for distillation. The rude still was 
made of iron pots, procured from ships, with a gun- 
barrel used as a tube to conduct the vapour. The 
liquor obtained in this way was nearly pure al- 
cohol." 

It would appear that the natives had used the ki 
before to obtain a kind of beer, but this new knowl- 
edge of distillation had very dangerous conse- 
quences. A still became one of the most cherished 
possessions of every chief of consequence, and the 
fire-water was not long in gaining favour as an ar- 
ticle of consumption. Moreover, the islanders were 
not dependent upon the home-brewed article for 
their supply, as the traders, eagerly watching for 
an opening for their nefarious trade, soon began the 
importation of large quantities of rum and gin. 
This latter was of a quality which earned in time 
the designation of " sand-paper " gin, a soubriquet 
which is self-explanatory. 

It is not surprising that Kamehameha, open, even 
more than the other chiefs, to the influence of the 
foreigners, should have himself fallen under the 
spell of this baleful importation ; and for a time, we 



DEVELOPMENT OF TRADE 293 

are told, the king drank to excess. It even seemed 
that the reign which, notwithstanding its dark 
blots, had attained a pitch of glory unprecedented 
in Hawaiian annals, was doomed to set in shame 
and contempt, and that the king who had con- 
quered till no human enemy was left to conquer, 
was himself to be overcome by the "bottle-imp." 
Such had been the fate of the great Macedonian; 
such seemed likely to be the fate of the Napoleon of 
the Pacific. 

But Kamehameha was now to reap the fruits of 
his sagacity in surrounding himself with wise coun- 
sellors, whose advice, untinged with flattery, he 
knew was like the oracles of the gods. It is to the 
everlasting credit of the white races that, though 
they produced sailors and merchants such as those 
who imported ruin into the Paradise of the Pacific, 
they also produced men like Young and Davis. It is 
also vastly to the credit of Kamehameha that in all 
his intercourse with white men he never failed to 
regard Young and Davis as the type of men whom 
he desired as the pillars of his throne. Davis, as we 
have seen, had perished a victim to the treachery of 
the chiefs, but Young remained, and it was John 
Young who now, in Kamehameha' s hour of peril, 
came forward to convince him of the necessity of 
abandoning the use of the foreign liquors. It 
needed no small courage on the part of Young to in- 
terfere with the appetites of an autocrat and it was 
no easy task to convince an incipient dipsomaniac 
of the inclination of the plane upon which he was 
walking. But Young did not shirk his task and it is 
to the credit of Kamehameha that he did not resent 
the advice tendered. The king first of all consented 



294 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

to restrict his allowance of grog to a small fixed 
quantity per diem, and later on, seeing the need of 
stronger measures, abandoned the use of intoxi- 
cants entirely, and became a noble example to his 
people in a time of terribly rapid demoralization. 
Not content with a merely negative use of his influ- 
ence, he exerted his royal authority to abolish the 
manufacture of intoxicating liquor, and near the 
end of his life summoned a great assembly of the 
leading men of Hawaii at Kailua, at which the de- 
cree was promulgated forbidding all further manu- 
facture and ordering the destruction of all existing 
stills. S* 

Other events in the life of Hawaii's first monarch 
may strike the imagination more, but perhaps no 
other event in his long career displays so truly the 
greatness of the man, who, under tempting circum- 
stances, in the evening of his days, after long toil 
and bloody conflict, refuses to acquiesce in ease, but 
remains strenuous to the last, fighting against the 
moral enemies of his country with all the zest and 
courage he had displayed in his conflicts with the 
great chiefs of Hawaii. Kamehameha the Great, 
pagan as he was, put to shame his Christian suc- 
cessors to the throne. 

Liholiho, who came to the throne as Kame- 
hameha II, though playing no small part in the in- 
troduction of Christianity, discarded, like another 
Eehoboam, the old counsellors of his father and 
spent his time in idleness and drunken revelry. 
Kamehameha III, with many noble traits of charac- 
ter, shared the vices of his predecessor, and for a 
time all laws were practically abrogated, except 
those against murder, theft and sedition, while dis- 



DEVELOPMENT OF TRADE 295 

tilleries and grog-shops multiplied on every side. 
The reign of Kamehameha IV began with, bright 
hopes but ended in disappointment and sorrow, the 
great tragedy of the reign being the shooting by the 
king, while drunk, of his private secretary, Mr. 
Neilson. 

So the introduction of the fire-water cast a 
shadow upon the throne from above and under- 
mined it from beneath, and no small share of the 
influences which led ultimately to the downfall and 
destruction of the kingdom was directly the work of 
the abuse of liquor in the court of the ill-fated 
Kalakaua. Alas, that the white men who in many 
cases were his chosen counsellors had neither for 
their king nor for themselves the courageous spirit 
of John Young. 

With the subsequent history of Hawaii in view, 
we can afford to regard the resistance of Kame- 
hameha to the liquor trade, whether we consider 
him personally or as the ruler of his people, as a 
piece of moral heroism lighting up, as with a flash 
of sunlight, these barbarous and benighted times. 1 

1 After the introduction of Christianity, a woman, personat- 
ing the goddess Pele, declared to the missionaries that "not 
Pele, but the rum of the white men, whose gods you are so 
fond of," had destroyed more of the king's men than all the 
volcanoes in the islands. 



a 



XXXIV 

KAMEHAMEHA'S LAST TOUR 

Willing nations knew their lawful lord." 



THE king was now seventy-five years old and 
had well earned a period of repose, but so 
far from yielding to the calls of nature in 
this respect we find him in 1811 starting on a com- 
prehensive tour throughout his dominions. 

Leaving Honolulu on his own schooner, the 
Keoua, he intended to superintend in Hawaii the 
collection and exportation of the sandalwood from 
which he was deriving the bulk of his revenue. The 
journey, however, was interrupted by what might 
have proved a very serious accident. The fleet had 
hardly arrived off Lanai, when it was discovered 
that the Keoua had sprung a leak, and for a few 
moments it looked as though the king and his reti- 
nue were to end their career in the deep waters of 
the Maui channel. But they were saved from a 
watery grave by the bravery and skill of an Ha- 
waiian sailor, Waipa by name, who plunged into the 
sea and, thanks to his expertness as a diver, suc- 
ceeded in nailing a piece of canvas over the leak, so 
that it was possible for the ship to put back into 
port at Honolulu. 

Here Captain Jonathan Windship once more 
came to the rescue and gave the king passage on 

296 



KAMEHAMEHA'S LAST TOUR 297 

board his ship for Kealakekua Bay. It must have 
occurred to Kamehameha as he landed that times 
had greatly changed since the English navigator ex- 
piated with his life his discovery of the group. Now 
he, the king, was travelling in the white man's ship 
and using the white men as the tools of government. 
No longer were they gods in his eyes, but no longer 
were they foes and strangers. Nor was he to them 
any longer a savage and barbarian, but a king 
whose word they could trust and whose judgment 
they could respect. 

After a stay of some days in Hawaii, the king 
sailed for Maui, where he stayed at his Brick Pal- 
ace in Lahaina, superintending the collection of the 
taxes. From thence he went to Molokai to fulfill 
similar duties in that island. The wily old monarch 
evidently believed it necessary to see to his own tax- 
collecting, and we may be quite sure he allowed 
neither chiefs nor people to rob him of his dues. 

At the same time he used his visit, not merely to 
receive benefit through the gathering of taxes, but 
to initiate measures which might conduce to the 
prosperity of the island and restore the resources 
which had been so ruinously wasted. The sandal- 
wood trade had led to worse evils than deforesta- 
tion. So many had been pressed into service for the 
finding and felling and transportation of the timber 
that there had been none left to cultivate the fields. 
Consequently, agriculture had completely ceased, 
and when the time came for the people to reap the 
harvest of the land, there had been nothing to reap. 
The gods, Ku-pulupulu and Ku-rnoku-halii, were in- 
voked in vain. No food was forthcoming to be taken 
with the red fish in the sacred calabash to the tern- 



298 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

pie of Lono ; much less did any remain for the use of 
the people. A famine broke out and threatened 
serious consequences. 

Of course, since prevention is better than cure, it 
had been better if Kamehameha had been wise be- 
forehand and seen to it that the selfish policy of the 
sandalwood trade did not interfere with the essen- 
tial industries of the nation. It must be confessed, 
however, that once he realized the state of things, 
he did his best to repair the mischief. Believing 
that the best way of giving advice is to set a good 
example, he set his retinue to work tilling the 
ground and himself took the " digger " in hand and 
laboured as vigorously as the youngest. The piece 
of ground at which he worked personally is still 
pointed out by the admiring inhabitants. It was a 
sight to extort admiration from men of any time, 
this stern old despot, oo in hand, surrounded by the 
proud nobility of Hawaii, digging and planting the 
ground which by their thoughtless policy they had 
permitted to lapse from cultivation. No wonder the 
people followed the king's example with a good 
heart and, thanks to that glorious climate, where 
seasons are almost unknown, the worst effects of 
famine were soon averted. % 

Nor did the king stop here. He was ready to con- 
fess that in his haste to get rich he had over- 
reached himself, and at once promulgated a decree 
by which the young sandalwood trees became kapu. 
We may suppose, moreover, that this threatened ex- 
tinction of the sandalwood called his attention to 
the need for intervention in another matter. To se- 
cure the yellow feathers used in the manufacture of 
the royal cloaks, large numbers of birds were every 



KAMEHAMEHA'S LAST TOUR 299 

year trappeS and strangled. There was really no 
need to kill the birds, since it is said that only one 
feather was taken from each bird, but with true 
Hawaiian recklessness killing was the usual prac- 
tice. Even in Kamehameha's day the result was 
observable in the gradual extinction of the species 
from which the feathers were obtained. 

The king was now in a reforming mood, so he 
ordered that from henceforth the birds should be set 
free when the needed feathers had been plucked, 
that other plumes might grow in their stead. To 
any one acquainted with the Hawaiian character, it 
will occur that the man who could at all rise to the 
height of considering the future and of retrench- 
ment in matters of this kind, has every reason to 
claim a very exceptional position among his fellow 
countrymen. 

And exceptional Kamehameha was in other re- 
spects, for, old as he was, on August 11, 1813, he 
welcomed the news that his august spouse Keopuo- 
lani had borne him another son. This was Kaui- 
keaouli, who came to the throne on the death of 
Liholiho, under the title of Kamehameha III. This 
happy event took place at Xailua. 



a 



XXXV 

FOREIGN COMPLICATIONS 

For our bad neighbour makes us early stirrers, 
Which is both healtnful and good husbandry: 
Besides they are our outward consciences, 
And preachers to us all. 



99 



THE last chapter of Kamehameha's life is oc- 
cupied with resistance to foreign invasion. 
It was evident that, as foreign nations, 
or rather their representatives abroad, became ac- 
quainted with the exceptional advantages of Ha- 
waii, the island kingdom would have more to fear 
from outside encroachments than from internal re- 
bellion. It was probably the anticipation of this 
which led Kamehameha years before to consent to 
the English protectorate proposed by Vancouver. 
In the succeeding reigns the kingdom became the 
football and shuttlecock of several nations in turn, 
but Kamehameha himself was not to pass away 
without experience of the difficult task of defending 
his conquest from foreign greed. But he may fairly 
be said to have proved equal to the demands upon 
him and, had his successors done as well, the integ- 
rity of the realm might have been secure for many 
generations. 

The nation from whom Kamehameha received at- 
tention too close to be pleasant in his last years was 

300 



FOREIGN COMPLICATIONS 301 

Russia. Perhaps we should rather say that the 
nationality of those who troubled him was Russian, 
for the nation itself treated him, so far as appears, 
with perfect courtesy. 

The real author of the trouble was Governor 
Baranoff, the Russian Governor of Alaska, who as 
early as 1809 appears to have the design of forming 
a commercial colony in the islands. He had inau- 
gurated a similar scheme in California where, in de- 
fiance of the Spanish government, he planted a col- 
ony at Bodega Bay and fortified the post. 

Two years later this colonially disposed Governor 
sent a ship called the Attatoelpa to the islands on a 
sealing expedition. Kamehameha had developed 
with the sealers quite a trade in salt, as he possessed 
near Honolulu a small circular lake so impregnated 
with salt that as much as two or three hundred bar- 
rels of fine, hard, crystallized salt was obtainable 
per annum. This was sold to Russian vessels from 
Alaska and other points in Northwest America. 
Some of it went as far as Kamchatka and was used 
for curing seal-skins and fish. The Attatoelpa was, 
however, wrecked at Waimea on the coast of Kauai, 
and the valuable cargo was left in the care of Kau- 
mualii. It was fortunate for the owner that Kame- 
hameha did not claim the wreck for himself, as he 
had done the preceding year in the case of John 
Jacob Astor's ship, the Lark, driven ashore at Ka- 
hoolawe. Baranoff, however, did not forget the 
cargo of the Attatoelpa, and in 1815 sent Doctor 
Scheffer to procure its restoration. Scheffer landed 
first at Kailua, where Kamehameha was staying, 
and after a very friendly reception was sent on his 
way on board the Millwood. Arrived at Kauai, he 



302 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

regained his property, erected a storehouse, and 
started business as a trader. 

After this Eussian ships began to make their 
appearance so often as to excite alarm. First came 
the Discovery, a Russian seal ship, with thirty Ko- 
diak Indians on board, all of whom were left at 
Waimea with Scheffer. A little while after came 
the Ilmen, a brig, on the way from Mexico, for re- 
pairs, and about the same time there arrived at 
Honolulu the Myrtle. The ship, sent by Baranoff, 
landed a force of men at Honolulu, who built a 
block-house, mounted guns and hoisted the Russian 
flag. Kamehameha's suspicions had already been 
excited, and when he heard of this last hostile move, 
he sent a force under the command of Kalanimoku 
to watch, and if necessary, to oppose the invaders by 
force. 

The Russians, however, did not wait for Kame- 
hameha's warriors, but sailed for Kauai, where a 
fort and breastwork were erected at Waimea. Here 
Scheffer had for some time been intriguing to gain 
from Kaumualii possession of Kauai, offering, ac- 
cording to some, to lease the whole island for a 
number of years, or to obtain the valley of Hanalei. 
But Kamehameha was equal to this emergency also. 

First of all, he ordered the construction of a 
strong fort in Honolulu, the position of which is 
marked by the present Fort Street. It was about a 
hundred yards square, and was built by Xalanimoku 
under the direction of John Young. It seems to 
have included the fort which the Russians had left 
unfinished. About sixty guns were mounted and 
others placed on the Punchbowl Hill, so that the 
city of Honolulu, which had now grown to be a town 



FOREIGN COMPLICATIONS 303 

of six or seven thousand inhabitants, was able to 
feel comparatively safe. 

Having secured Honolulu, Kamehameha now 
sent orders to his vassal Kaumualii on Kauai, com- 
manding the immediate expulsion of Doctor Schef- 
fer. That gentleman, however, thinking discretion 
the better part of valour, at once gathered up his 
possessions and sought refuge on the brig. Then he 
sailed to Hanalei and thence to Honolulu, where the 
king's orders were again given for his departure. 
Once more Scheffer complied, and the Eussians took 
their leave, only the Myrtle, an old and unseaworthy 
ship, returning to sink in the harbour. 

BaranofPs attempt thus ended in complete fail- 
ure, and it would appear that the Russian govern- 
ment in no way countenanced his schemes, for, when 
a Russian war-ship called soon after at the islands, 
the captain expressed himself as perfectly satisfied 
with Kamehameha's action. 

Yet it took some time to allay the suspicions of 
the people with regard to the Russian designs. To- 
wards the close of the year another Russian vessel, 
the Rurick, arrived and for a time great agitation 
prevailed as to the object of its coming. However, 
on the captain disowning sympathy with Scheffer, 
confidence returned, and a remarkable interchange 
of hospitality took place. 

Kamehameha remitted all charges for pilotage 
and anchorage, had the Rurick towed into port by 
eight double canoes, and supplied the ship with an 
abundance of provisions. One little misunderstand- 
ing took place while the Russians were surveying 
the harbour, owing to the fact that the strangers set 
up little flags along the shore, but the common 



304 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

sense of John Young came to the rescue, and when 
he substituted brooms for flags the people were ap- 
peased. Then the festivities were resumed and a 
grand mock fight was given in honour of Captain 
Kotzebue, at which sixty chiefs displayed their 
prowess in the hurling and catching of spears. 
There had been no fighting for a long time now, but 
Kamehameha seems to have kept his troops in a 
high state of efficiency and ready for any emergency. 
He had not arrived at the state of feeling which 
prompted Kalaimoku some years later, after a re- 
bellion in Kauai, to dismiss the prisoners who were 
brought before him with a present of spelling-books 
and the injunction to go home and live in peace. 
Some years after the death of Kamehameha, Mr. 
Ellis entered the house of a chief named Miomio, 
and remarked upon the splendid way in which the 
spears and other warlike implements on the walls 
were kept. The chief replied that Kamehameha al- 
ways required his warriors to keep their weapons 
bright and polished. It was a proof of his influence 
that this order appears to have been everywhere 
obeyed until obedience had become a habit. 

Kotzebue departed from the islands on December 
14, 1816, and on this occasion, for the first time, 
salutes were exchanged between the guns of the ship 
and those of the fort. 

Kamehameha was rapidly winning recognition 
for his kingdom among the powers of Europe and 
America, and these last years were for the most part 
years of honourable peace and prosperity. 

One untoward event, however, has to be recorded 
of this last two or three years. Kamehameha had 
purchased in 1816 a ship called the Forester from 



FOEEIGN COMPLICATIONS 305 

Captain Piggott, and had changed its name to 
Kaahumanu, in honour of his favourite wife. In 
March of the next year he sent her, laden with san- 
dalwood, on a voyage to Canton, expecting to re- 
ceive a handsome return in Chinese goods. Instead 
of this, however, there was a loss of about $3,000. 
The vessel came back nearly empty, and in debt. 
Captain Adams explained that the Chinese govern- 
ment would not recognize the Hawaiian flag, that 
some of the money had been stolen, and so much de- 
manded for pilotage and port dues that nothing 
remained to fit the vessel for sea. Hence the debt. 

Kamehameha was naturally chagrined, but his 
character comes out well as he makes even his mis- 
fortune a source of profit. He reasoned that if port 
dues were so profitable in China, they might very 
well be so in Honolulu. So, instead of $40 for an- 
chorage, he decided that from henceforth every ves- 
sel anchoring in the outer harbour should pay $60 
and $80 for entering the basin, or inner harbour. 

Thus making friends of adversity, the king con- 
tinued his trading ventures undauntedly, and was 
not always so unlucky as with the Kaahumanu, 



XXXVI 

THE DEATH OF KAMEHAMEHA 

"Take him up: — 
Help, three o' the chief est soldiers; I'll be one. — 
Beat thou the drum, that it speak mournfully; 
Trail your steel pikes. Though in this city he 
Hath widow' d and unchilded many a one, 
Yet he shall have a noble memory." 

FOR seven years previous to his death Kame- 
hameha had been living at his favourite Ha- 
waiian residence, Kailua. This town, situ- 
ated on the shores of a fine bay on the Kona coast, 
had at this time a considerable population. Some 
years afterwards, Mr. Ellis counted here 529 houses 
and estimated the number of inhabitants as nearly 
3,000. Neat houses, shaded with cocoanut and kou 
trees, extended along the seashore, and the ground 
around was cultivated wherever possible, so that 
small gardens appeared among the barren rocks on 
which the houses were built and, wherever soil could 
be found in sufficiency, the sweet potato, water- 
melon and tobacco plant struggled for existence. 
The great drawback was the want of water, none be- 
ing nearer than four or five miles, and that only in 
small pools. Consequently, one of the best presents 
Kamehameha could obtain from a passing ship was 
a cask of water, and most of the vessels accustomed 
to trade with Kailua were careful to remember this. 

306 



THE DEATH OF KAMEHAMEHA 307 

Here then Kamehaineha spent the evening of his 
days, and of him it may truly be said, as of Moses, 
" his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated. " 
Eighty -two years of age, he yet kept a keen and vigi- 
lant eye on every part of his dominions and upon 
every department of his government, sending orders 
day by day to almost every island of the group, and 
watching narrowly the execution of his decrees and 
the administration of his laws. He kept his kiai- 
moku, or police officials, busy, and as late as 1818 
had three men executed at Kealakekua for petty vio- 
lations of the kapu. He defended his severity by 
saying that in all his enterprises his success had 
been owing to the strict attention he had paid to the 
service and requirements of his god. So the altars 
smoked on the neighbouring hills, the priests of 
Kaili received their victims, and Kamehameha re- 
mained in some respects a barbarian to the last. 

Unlike his successor, he saw in the kapu the 
moral bond which kept his throne and kingdom se- 
cure, and was determined not to relax his rule in 
matters relating to the ancient religious customs of 
the people. 

Even in the cruel custom of infanticide he re- 
mained an ultra-conservative, and when John 
Young haled before him a man who had broken the 
back of his child across his knee in a fit of temper, 
the king refused to see any cause for interfering 
with the personal liberty of the subject. 

It may appear strange that, with so many white 
men coming and going and around him, no gleam of 
Christian truth appears so far to have penetrated 
his dark old heart. But the white men he was ac- 
customed to see around him were not very zealous 



308 THE NAPOLEON OP THE PACIFIC 

witnesses for their religion, nor, it must be con- 
fessed, very shining examples of its influence, and 
Kamehameha was allowed to die as he had lived, a 
heathen. Had he been permitted to live a year 
longer, he would have been able to welcome the first 
band of missionaries, but it is doubtful whether he 
would have viewed with much favour the effort to 
break down the power of the priests and the author- 
ity of the kapu. 

It is said that in his retirement at Kailua he 
heard of the change which the new faith had made 
in Tahiti, and earnestly desired that teachers should 
visit his people, but in all probability his thoughts 
about Tahiti were mostly of a material and worldly 
character. The dream had once taken possession of 
him to conquer Tahiti and make himself Emperor 
of the Pacific, and he had even conducted negotia- 
tions with Pomare I with a view to marrying his 
daughter Kekauuohe to the king of Tahiti, and re- 
ceiving the daughter of that monarch as a bride for 
his heir Liholiho. The marriage would probably 
have been ratified, had not Pomare died while 
Kamehameha was waiting for a ship to take Kekau- 
uohe to Tahiti. So the scheme came to nothing, 
and the dream of conquest faded. 

There were to be no more conquests for Kame- 
hameha. He had come into the near presence of 
that grim enemy of man before whom all alike, 
kings and peasants, men of war and men of peace, 
have to yield their homage. It became gradually 
more evident to all around that the " lonely one " 
was nearing the close of his earthly career. No 
more would he poise his swift-darting spear upon 
the field of battle, or utter the war-cry which rose 



THE DEATH OF KAMEHAMEHA 309 

triumphant above the din of the fiercest conflict. 
Warriors in the dim halls of Milu would feel the stir 
of his coming, and rouse themselves from their 
ghostly sleep. A couch is set for him in the midst 
of the slain, and the great company of the Hawaiian 
shades await in trepidation the coming of the last 
and greatest of them all. 

Years before Kapihe, the priest of Kuahailo at 
Kalapaua, had prophesied that, when Kamehameha 
died, the god Kuahailo would take his spirit to the 
sky and accompany it to the earth again, and give 
it a body beautiful and young in which he could re- 
sume his rule over the island kingdom. Many peo- 
ple believed the prediction, as Eomans of old be- 
lieved in a Nero redivivus, but no one could deny at 
present that Death had sealed the monarch for his 
own. 

The kahunas gathered round the prostrate giant 
and muttered incantations, but all proved useless. 
They desired to resort to the extreme means of offer- 
ing human sacrifices to avert the hand of death, but 
a gleam of humanity lighted up the smileless coun- 
tenance, and with melancholy resignation to the 
fact that his rule was over and that he was no more 
the king, he replied : " No ; the men are kapu to the 
king." He referred to his son Liholiho, who, at the 
prospect of his father's death, had departed for 
Kohala, in order that he might remain unpolluted 
for the ceremonies which were before him. The 
story of these last moments is so well told in a nar- 
rative drawn up from the witnesses and published 
in the Moolelo Hawaii in 1838 that the quotation 
will be pardoned : 

" The illness of Kamehameha became so great 



310 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

that the native doctors could not cure him. Then 
said the priest, ' It is best to build a house for your 
god, that you may recover.' The chiefs, sustaining 
the advice of the priest, built a sacred house for his 
god Kukailimoku, and a Jcapu took place at evening. 
The people, apprehending that the priest and chiefs 
were urging Kamehameha to have men sacrificed to 
his god for his recovery, were seen to fly, through 
fear of death, and remained in their hiding places 
till the tabu was over. Probably the king did not 
assent to the proposition, but was heard to say, 
' men are tabu for the king ' — alluding to his son. 
After the worship, the king's disease increased, and 
he became helpless. When another tabu day arrived 
for the new temple, he said to Liholiho, i Go to the 
worship of your god — I cannot go.' Then was 
ended his praying to his feather god, Kukailimoku 
(an image of Juggernaut-like form, made of net- 
work and feathers ) . But he assented to the propo- 
sition of another worshipper who, having a bird-god 
called Pua, said, ' The sick will be cured by it,' 
though the body of the god was the bird alae, that is 
eaten. Two houses were therefore erected; but 
while occupying them, he ceased to take food and 
became extremely weak. His wives, children and 
chiefs, perceiving this, after three days, conveyed 
him to his dwelling house. ... In the evening 
the feeble king was borne from his sleeping house to 
the front house, and took a mouthful of poi and a 
little water. The chiefs asked him for his final 
charge ; but he made not the least answer. He was 
lifted back to his sleeping house; and near mid- 
night brought again to the front house, where he 
took another mouthful of food with water. Kaikio- 



THE DEATH OF KAMEHAMEHA 311 

ewa then addressed him thus, ' Here are we all, your 
younger brethren, your king, and your foreigner; 
lay down for us your charge, that your king and sis- 
ters may hear.' Not fully comprehending, he with 
difficulty enquired, ' What do you ask? ? The chief 
repeated, ' Your charge for us.' He made an effort 
and said, ' Proceed only according to my policy, 
until ' not able to finish his sentence, he em- 
braced the neck of the foreigner and drew him 
down for a kiss. Hoapili was another whom he em- 
braced, and pulling him down, whispered in his ear, 
and was then carried back to his sleeping house. In 
an hour or two, he was borne again, partially, into 
the front house, while most of his body remained in 
his sleeping house. He was once more replaced; 
and about two o'clock (May 8th) , 1819, he expired." 

The greatest of the Hawaiians was no more. 
Well did the queen Kaahumanu express the fact 
when in reply to the suggestion of the chiefs that 
the body should be divided among them, she said : 
" The body belongs to the new king ; our part, the 
breath, has gone." 

It would be impossible to describe the consterna- 
tion which followed. The death of the king was lit- 
erally the abolition or the suspension of law. In 
other monarchies the cry is, " Le roi est mort; Vive 
le roi! " Not so in Hawaii. When the king died an 
interregnum followed, during which anarchy was 
let loose, and the people delighted to show in every 
possible way that they were beside themselves, 
avowedly, on account of grief. 

During this period of license men became demons. 
Not content with the ordinary signs of mourning, 
such as cutting off the hair, knocking out the front 



312 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

teeth, and tattooing the tongue, they threw off their 
clothing, burned one another's houses, clothes and 
property, took revenge for every remembered or im- 
aginary wrong, and initiated a veritable reign of 
terror. 

In many cases there was only too much legiti- 
mate cause for terror, for the people, as they fled to 
the mountains, knew that there would soon be 
prowling about the streets that awful functionary 
known as the mu-ai~kanaka, or the " man-eating 
mu" on the lookout for human sacrifices to form 
Kamehameha's " companions in death." 

Moreover, in the temples, the kuni sorcerers were 
at work, using their unhallowed rites to discover 
any who had been engaged in praying the king 
to death. Sitting round the kuni-ahi, or broiling- 
fire, the priests worked their charms, strangling a 
dog, decapitating a fowl, and placing the carcasses 
on the broiling-stones, praying meanwhile that the 
culprits might speedily sicken and die. Then the 
priest would sleep, and in his sleep, if his prayer 
had been strong, there would be revealed to him the 
guilty party or parties. It is needless to say that 
a priest often used his imagination or his private 
grudge to eke out the deficiencies of his inspired 
vision. Hence the terror of the people and, even in 
Christian times, we hear of the natives, as at the 
death of Keopuolani, taking refuge with the mis- 
sionaries to protect their lives and property from 
these cruel abominations of paganism. 

Meanwhile, the immediate entourage of the dead 
king was busy with the funeral rites. Even in re- 
cent years one has been made aware of the enormous 
amount of work involved in preparing for a royal 



THE DEATH OF EAMEHAMEHA 313 

funeral in Hawaii, and although the ceremony of a 
hundred years ago was vastly different from that 
of to-day, it was not less but more hedged about 
with the details of a meticulous etiquette. 

The corpse was first enveloped in wrappings of 
banana, taro, or palm leaves, and placed in a shal- 
low trench. Over this a fire was kept burning to 
hasten decomposition, and for ten days prayers 
were repeated over the temporary grave. Then the 
body was disinterred and the flesh stripped from the 
bones. The latter were tied up in a bundle with 
cimet, and made into what was termed a unihipili, 
by being covered with kapa and red feathers. The 
deification of the bones was now complete, the sacri- 
ficial hog was offered, and the heir returned from 
his seclusion on the tenth day after his father's 
death. 

But there still remained a very important part 
of the ceremony, namely, the disposal of the bones. 
This ceremony was known as huna-kele, and con- 
sisted in the concealment, by some intimate friend 
of the deceased, of the unihipili. Before death some 
trusty friend would be chosen for this office. " I do 
not wish my bones to be made into arrows to shoot 
mice with, or into fish-hooks," the chief would say, 
and his comrade would swear the vow of secrecy. 

Strange methods were adopted to ensure this 
secrecy. In the case of Kualii, an Oahu chief of the 
seventeenth century, the kahu, or friend, chosen to 
perform the huna-kele, took the bundle and went off 
as every one supposed to hide it in a cave, or sink it 
in deep water. Instead of this, he ground the 
bones into fine powder, and mixed it in a calabash 
of poi. When the feast was over, the chiefs enquired 



314 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

whether he had faithfully performed his duty for 
his dead friend. The Icahu, with conscious pride, 
pointed to the stomachs of the chiefs and related 
how he had hidden his master's bones in a hundred 
living tombs. 1 

The bones of Liloa were sunk in the deep waters 
off Kekaha, in Hawaii, and at the death of Umi, his 
friend Koi secretly took away the body, leaving an- 
other in its place, and deposited the hero's bones, 
some say in the great Pali of Kahulaana, others say 
in a cave at Waipio at the top of the Pali over which 
the cascade of Hiilawe hurls its foaming waters. 
The bones of some were laid up in the sacred shrine 
of the temple of Honauaau, others rested in a cave 
at the head of the Iao Valley, others again found a 
fiery home in the crater of Kilauea, whither they 
were flung as an offering to Pele. 

It may be supposed, therefore, in accordance with 
custom, that no little care would be taken to pre- 
serve inviolate the last resting place of Kame- 
hameha. 

And inviolate it has probably remained. 

As soon as the king had breathed his last, Kalai- 
moku expressed the feeling of the chiefs that the 
occasion was exceptional by exclaiming, " This is 
my thought; we will eat him raw." This sugges- 
tion, however, was overruled, and it was determined 
to go on with the huna-kele. 

The friend chosen for the last sad offices was, ac- 
cording to one account, Hoapili, according to an- 
other, Hoolulu, and what was done with the bones 
no man knows to this day. Mr. Ellis supposes that 
Liholiho may have carried a portion of them about 

1 Fornander, II, 283. 



THE DEATH OP KAMEHAMEHA 315 

with him as an amulet, but it is generally believed 
that somewhere in a cave in the district of North 
Kona, perhaps among the hills behind Kailua, the 
remains of the first monarch of Hawaii found 
repose. In testimony to the truth of this belief, it 
is said that, soon after the death of Kamehameha, 
one of his most trusty friends was encountered by 
two natives as he was returning from the moun- 
tains. He stopped them and sternly enquired 
whether they had seen any one that day passing to 
the hills. They denied having seen any one, and the 
story goes that had they answered otherwise, the 
chief, who is called Hoolulu, would have slain them 
both. 

Years afterwards, King Kalakaua tells us, when 
there was no longer any desire to conceal the 
bones of the dead, Kamehameha III, on a visit to 
Kailua, almost prevailed upon Hoolulu to unbosom 
himself of the secret. They started together for the 
hills for that purpose, but when Hoolulu saw others 
following beside the king, he turned back and the 
mystery remained undivulged. 

During the reign of Kalakaua a singular attempt 
was made to discover the bones by resort to some- 
thing resembling the ancient sorcery, including the 
employment of inspired swine. But the bones which 
were thus procured, though deposited with cere- 
mony in the Eoyal Mausoleum, are not generally re- 
garded as having any overwhelming claim to au- 
thenticity. 

The mystery of the bones of Kamehameha re- 
mains, therefore, unsolved, and we need not be sorry 
that such is the case. As was said of Moses, when 
the great lawgiver was laid to rest in a valley of the 



316 THE NAPOLEON OF THE PACIFIC 

land of Moab, so it may be said of Kamehameha, 
sleeping his long sleep among the hills of Kailua, — 
" No man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day." 

What advantage was it for Hawaii to possess the 
bones when she had lost the spirit? The Hawaii of 
the after-time with all its boasted advance into the 
full glare of civilization's light, could only " sweep 
heroic dust for hour-glass sand." It was in vain, 
with the blight of leprosy and other forms of death 
upon the race, — the terrible legacy of her contact 
with the civilized world, — for her graves to remain, 
to " implore her people to be strong and not afraid." 

If Kamehameha inspires men now as when he 
lived, it must be mainly men of another race who 
will learn to claim him, a brother worthy of honour 
and renown. If he rule now, it must be over the 
half -legendary heroes of the past, not over their de- 
generate offspring of to-day. 

Yet Kamehameha could not altogether die. There 
was something after all in the prophecy of Kapihi 
that he would come again and rule. Sometimes, in 
the silent night, some imaginative native may still 
see the oio, or spectral procession of Kamehameha 
and his warrior host. Many an one has been ready 
to swear to his appearance in the valley of Waipio, 
and instances are not wanting of men left dead in 
the ghostly track. Even as recently as 1887, the 
night before Princess Likelike passed away, the 
writer heard men declare that the long procession 
of kings and chiefs, headed by the giant spectre of 
the first Kamehameha, had been seen passing si- 
lently through the Nuuanu Valley. 

It was indeed Kamehameha I who ruled long 
after his own death. He overshadowed all his prog- 



THE DEATH OF KAMEHAMEHA 317 

eny, and was the real king till the sceptre dropped 
from the hands of his last successor. Alas, then 
there were no longer the same men around the 
throne ! 

Here is a story which is also the story of the race. 

A man in the southern part of Kona retired to 
rest, but was transported in his sleep to the spirit 
world. Here he saw Kamehameha, who enquired 
of him as to the govermnent of Hawaii, and of the 
welfare of Liholiho and his other children. He then 
requested the man to return to earth and take cer- 
tain messages to Liholiho and to the chief Kuakini. 
If he fulfilled his embassy, he promised to show him 
special favour. If he failed the penalty would be 
death. The man returned home, told what he had 
seen, but, instead of setting out at once for Kailua, 
he stayed at home to dress a hog, and prepare pro- 
visions for the way. The food was prepared, but 
before the man could taste thereof, he was dead. 

And Hawaii, for all the world like this man, with 
the commands of Kamehameha upon her heart, has 
chosen to dally and defer, to eat and to drink, — and 
to die. 

Alas, the greatest child of the Pacific " mai ha po 
mai," — " from chaos until now," the Alexander, the 
Caesar, the Alfred of his race, has appealed in vain 
to his posterity ! It is in the humble hope that he 
may still appeal to others, who have inherited the 
domain he won, and who, in spite of all difference of 
colour, are still his brothers in blood, that this 
memoir has been penned. 



Glossary 

Of principal Hawaiian terms used 

Atmpuaa, a piece of land taxable one hog monthly. 

Aku, a fish frequently subject to kapu, 

Akua, a divinity. 

Alii, a chief. 

Anaana, a species of witobcraft, used to procure an enemy's death. 

Anu, the place of an oracle in a temple. 

Auhuhu, a narcotio plant (Tephrosia piacatoria), used to drug and catch 

fish. 
Aumakua, a household divinity. 
Auwalalua, a mythical sea-monster. 
Auwe, the Hawaiian wailing. 

Awa, an intoxicating drink brewed from the Piper methysticwm,. 
Hale, a house. 

Hale mua, the apartment of the men. 
Hale noa, the apartment of the women. 
Haole, a white man. 
Heiau, a temple. 

Hokeo, a calabash trunk, carried by the chiefs. 
Holua, a game resembling a toboggan slide. 
Hunakele, the ceremony of concealing the bones of a dead chief. 
Ieie, an Hawaiian creeper, the Freycinetia Arnotti. 
Hi, a small taxable division of land. 
Iliahi, the sandal- wood tree, Santalum ellipticum. 
Imu loa, the great oven, used for human sacrifices. 
Iwipolena, a beautiful scarlet bird, prized for its feathers. 
Kahiki, " the old country," i. e., Tahiti. 
Kahili, a feather standard, the insignia of a chief. 
Kahu, a guardian, nurse, keeper. 
Kahuna, a priest. 
Kanaka, a man ; pi. Kanaka. 

Kapa, cloth made from the wauke, or paper mulberry. 

318 



GLOSSARY 319 

Kapu, or tabu, a restriction placed upon places, things, persons, and 

days. 
Kaua, war. 

Kauila, an Hawaiian wood, Alphitonia ponderosa. 
Ki, or Ti, Cordyline terminalis, a plant from the root of which a beer is 

brewed and a spirit distilled. 
Kilokilo, a species of diviners. 
Lama, an Hawaiian tree, Mdba Sandwicensis, the seeds of which are 

eaten by the natives. 
Lani, the heavens, a word incorporated into many royal names. 
Lehua, the first slain in battle, ofiered as a sacrifice. 
Lei, a wreath or garland. 
Lele, the altar in a temple. 
Lio, a horse. 

Lomilomi, an Hawaiian form of massage. 
Luau, a native feast. 

Lunapai, the herald sent to summon warriors to battle. 
Mai okuu, a disease, probably cholera. 

Maile, a fragrant shrub, Alyxia olivaeformis, much used for leis. 
Malo, a loin cloth. 
Mele, an Hawaiian song, or saga. 
Moi, a king. 

Moku, a district comprising an entire island. 
Mokumoku, a form of boxing. 
Mu-ai-kanaka, "the man-eating mm," a priest who chooses human 

victims for the saorifice. 
Noni, a native tree, Morinda citrifolia. 
Ohia, a native forest tree, Eugenia Malaccensis. 
Oio, a spectral procession of the chiefs. 
Okana, a division of land made for purposes of taxation. 
Okolehao, a spirit distilled from the M plant. 
Oo, an Hawaiian hoe. 

Opelu, a fish frequently put under Jcapu. • 
Pahe, a game played with darts. 
Pahoa, a dagger. 

Pahoehoe, a sheet of hardened lava. 

Palaoa, an ornament of bone or ivory, insignia of the chiefs. 
Pali, a precipitous cliff. 

Papa-he-nalu, the "wave- sliding" or surf -board. 
Pau, a long, flowing garment worn by women on horseback. 
Pea, a cross or sign placed at the entrance of a city of refuge. 



320 GLOSSARY 

Peleleu, a war-canoe. 

Pilipili, headlong. 

Poluln, a long spear. 

Puloulou, the lcapu stick, sign of a tabu. 

Pnhenehene, an Hawaiian game. 

Puuhonua, a oity of refuge. 

Uki, an Hawaiian herb, Dianella odorata. 

Ulua, a fish used in the sacrifices. 

Unihipili, a bundle made from the bones of a dead chief. 

Wahine, a woman. 

Wai, water. 

Wauke, the paper mulberry (Broussonetia papyrifera), from which the 
kapa is made. 



Index 



Adams, Capt., 305 

Akea, an early king of Hawaii, 

in 
Alae, a place in Hawaii, 183 
Alapa, a famous brigade, 43, 

46 
Alapainui, king of Hawaii, 17, 

20, 24 f ., 262 
Alexander, Prof., quoted, 292 
Anderson, Peter, 240 
Arthur, The, 269 
Attawelpa, The, 301 



Daedalus, The, 217 

Davis, Isaac, 14, 157, 170, 191, 

201, 240, 287 f. 
Diamond Head, in Oahu, 246, 

281 
Dibble, Rev. Sheldon, historian, 

64, 94, 113, 184 f. 
Discovery, The, 56 f., 214, 219, 

226 
Disease, Introduction of, 66, 86 
Dixon, Capt., 161 
Douglas, Capt.. 104, 165 



Duke of Portland, The, 283 
BarAnoee, Russian Governor Duncan, Capt., 163 
of Alaska, 301 



Barber, Capt., 269 

Bingham, American mission- 
ary, 162, 168 

Bodega Bay, 301 

Bolabola, in the Society Is- 
lands, 57 

Boyd, James, carpenter, 269 



" Eappo," a chief, 103 

Eke, a mountain mass in Maui, 

41, 42 
Eleanor, The, 166 f . 
Ellis, Rev. William, H5f., 181, 

249, 266, 278, 306 



Brick Palace," The, 276/297 Ev ™' a distnct In 0ahu ' I2 3 f " 



Britannia, The, 224 
Broughton, Capt., 251 f. 
Brown, Capt., 233, 236 

Campbell, Alexander, 281 f. 
Cannibalism, The question of, 

63 f. 
Canton, Trade with, 216 
Chatham, The, 214 
China, Trade with, 279, 305 
Clerke, Capt., 56, 99 
Cleveland, Capt, 277 



233 

Fair America, The, 166 f ., 201 
Feather cloaks and helmets, 

61 f. 
Felice, The, 163 
Fishing, Methods of, 116 
Forester, The, 304 
Fornander, Abraham, historian, 

55, 60, 89, U7, 124, 208 f., 

$H 
Fort Street, 302 



Colnett, Capt., 163 
Cook, Capt. James, 54, 55-68, Gaetano, Juan, Spanish dis- 
69-86, 87-106, 214 f . coverer, 56 

321 



322 * 



INDEX 



George III, o£ England, 216, 

225, 227, 283 
Gooch, Mr., 217 f. 
Gordon, Capt, 233 
Gore, Lieut, 65, 98 
Governors, Appointment of, 

264 f. 
Great Britain, asked to assume 

protectorate, 227 

Haau>u, a female ambassador 
of Kamehameha, 182, 190 

Halaea, a chief in Kau, 108 

Halaula, a place in Hawaii, 
140, 147 

Halawa, a place in Hawaii, 16, 

115, 156 
Haleakala, extinct volcano in 

Maui, 28, 38. 41, 69 
Halemanu, The cannibals of, 

6 4 
Hamakua, a place in Hawaii, 

in, 114, 183 

Hana, a district in Maui, 28, 

53, 117 
Harbottle, Capt., 282 
Hawaii, largest island of the 

group, passim 
Heiau, Dedication of a, 193 f. 
Hergest, I^eut, 217 f. 
Hewahewa, a priest, 259 
Hikiau, heiau of, 77 
Hilo, a town in Hawaii, 134, 

137, 184, 224, 254, 268 
Hoakau, a chief, 111 
Hoapili, a chief, 152, 278, 314 
Holoae, a priest, 35 
Honaunau, a city of refuge, 

125, 129, 134 
Honolulu, chief city of the 

islands, 245, 302 f. 
Honuaula, a place in Maui, 

162 
Hoolulu, a chief, 314 
Horse, Introduction of, 277 
Hua, a chief, 259 
Hualalai, Crater of, 272 

Iao, valley in Maui, 24, 42, 
171 ff. 



Ikuiwa, a month, 16 
Ilmen, The, 302 

Imakakalaloa, a chief, 109, 112 
Inamoo, regent of Kauai, 230 
Intemperance, Effects of, 291 f. 
Iphigenia, The, 163 

Jackal, The, 233 
Jarves, historian, 114, 117, 168, 
222 

Kaahumanu, wife of Kame- 
hameha, 29, 31, 50, 52, 150 f., 
219, 225, 270, 311 

Kaahumanu, The, 305 

Kaakau, a priest, 27 

Kaawaloa, a place in Hawaii, 73 

Kaeokulani, king of Kauai, 198, 
210, 216, 230 f. 

Kahahana, king of Oahu, 51, 
68, 1 18 f. 

Kahai, uncle of Kamehameha, 

143 
Kahaikalani, a chief, 108 

Kahaluu, a place in Hawaii, 35 

Kahanana, a chief, 30 

Kahekili, king of Maui, 18, 19, 
29 f., 43 f., 47, 118 ff., 142, 
157 f., 178 f., 198 ff., 228 

Kahului, a place in Maui, 42, 

174 
Kahulunuikaaumoku, daughter 

of a Kauai priest, 236 
Kaiana, a chief, 152, 163 f., 216, 

242 ff. 
Kailikea, a priest, 78, 103 
Kailua, a place in Hawaii, 35, 

115, 129, 299, 306 
" Kalaehohoa," War of, 32 
Kalaimamahu, brother of 

Kamehameha, 113 
Kalaimoku, a chief, 243 
Kalaipahoa, the poison goddess 

of Molokai, 179 f., 211 
Kalakaua, King, 12, 152, 315 
Kalanikapule, son of Kahekili, 

13, *7 3> 230, 234 f., 240 ff. 
Kalanimalokuloku, brother of 

Kamehameha, same as Keli- 

imaikai, 155 



INDEX 



323 



Kalanimoku, a chief, 14, 265 

Kalaniopuu, king of Hawaii, 
17, 27 f., 34 f-, 44 f-, 68, 70, 81, 
89, 106 f., 117 

Kalauao, a place in Oahu, 234 

Kaleopuupuu, a priest, 36 

Kalo, the man eater, 64 

Kalola, wife of Kalaniopuu, 
46, 167, 176 

Kalola, one of Kamehameha's 
wives, 113 

Kamakahalei, a chiefess, 60 

Kamanawa, one of Kame- 
hameha's kahus, 19, 45, 127, 
211 

Kamapuaa, the pig-god, 187 

Kameeiamoku, one of Kame- 
hameha's kahus, 14, 19, 45, 
127, 169, 278 

Kamehameha I, passim 

Kamehameha II, 40, 265, 271 f., 
294 

Kamehameha III, 294, 299, 315 

Kamehameha IV, 295 

Kamehamehanui, nephew of 
Alapainui, 24 

Kamohomoho, younger brother 
of Kahekili, 155, 221, 234 

Kanaina, a chief, 97 

Kane, one of the chief gods, 
76, ill 

Kaneakama, maker of the poi- 
son goddess, 180 

Kanekapolei, a chiefess, mother 
of Keoua, 96, 141 

Kanekoa, an uncle of Kame- 
hameha, 143 

Kaneohe, a place in Oahu, 246 

Kaopuiki, 10 

Kaopulupulu, a priest of Oahu, 
H9f. 

Kapakahili, a chief, 173 

Kapalipilo, War of, 28 

Kapihe, a priest, 309 

Kapiiohokolani, a king of 
Oahu, 25 

Kapoho, a place in Hawaii, 
145 f . 

Kapoukahi, a prophet, 182 

Kapu, Institution of, 81 f. 



Kapukoa, an Oahu hero, 123 
Kau, a district of Hawaii, 108, 

133, 254 

Kau, a priest, 77, 83, 90, 101 
Kauaawa, the " bitter " war, 

142 
Kauai, one of the Eight Is- 
lands, passim 
Kauhi, half brother of Kame- 
hamehanui, 25 
Kauhi, an Oahu hero, 123 
Kauhikoakoa, a Maui chief, 

124 
Kaula, or Bird Island, 66 
Kaumualii, king of Kauai, 217, 

284 ff., 303 
Kaunakakai, a place in Molo- 

kai, 242 
Kaupo, a district in Maui, 32, 

42, 49 
Kauwiki, a fortress in Maui, 

28, 32, 127, 200 
Kawaihae, a place in Hawaii, 

92, 143, 182, 206 
Kealakekua Bay, in Hawaii, 

52, 73, 82, 104, 135, 161, 166, 

220, 254 
Kealia, salt marsh in Maui, 46 
Kealiiokaloa, son of Umi, 55 
Keaulumoku, a seer, 31, 49 f., 

127, 140, 148 f. 
Keawe II, a chief of olden 

time, 125 
Keaweaheulu, a high chief, 

134, 211 
Keawemauhili, half brother of 

Kalaniopuu, 44, 121, 125 f., 

142, 172, 183 
Keaweopala, son of Alapainui, 

27 
Keawepoepoe, a chief, 229 
Keeaumoku, a high chief, 14, 

27, 29, 50 ff., 127, 135 f -, 140 £:, 

191, 206, 211, 278 
Kekaha, a place in Hawaii, 314 
Kekaulike, father of Kahekili, 

19, 24 
Kekauuohe, daughter of Kame- 
hameha, 368 
Kekiopilo, a prophet, 68 



324 



INDEX 



Kekuapoiula, wife of Kaha- 

hana, 122 
Kekuawahine, a warrior, 136 
Kekuhaupio, Kamehameha's tu- 
tor, 21, 23, 32 f., 44, 96, 128 f. 
Kekuiapuiwa, mother of Kame- 

hameha, 17 
Kekuokalani, a chief, 40 
Kekupuohi, wife of Kaiana, 

244 
Keliimaikai, brother of Kame- 

hameha, 155 f., 191, 207, 282 
Kcndrick, Capt, 233, 236 
Keoloewa, an idol, 276 
Keopuolani, wife of Kame- 

hameha, 141, 152, 176 f., 270, 

280, 299, 312 
Keoua, Kamehameha's accepted 

father, 17, 24, 26 
Keoua Kuahuula, half brother 

of Kiwalao, 125, 132, 140 f., 

183 f., 192 f., 198 ff. _ 
Keoua Peeale, a warrior, 141 
Keoua, The, 296 
" Kepaniwai," Battle of, 175 
Kiha, a hero of the old time, 

11, 212 
Kiha-pu, the magic conch, 212 
Kiheipukua, a place in Maui, 

44 
Kikane, ambassador of Kame- 

hameha, 177 f., 198 
Kilauea, famous crater in 

Hawaii, 143, 184 f., 314 
King, Capt., 74, 77, 89, 91, 99 f. 
King George, The, 104, 161 
Kipuhula, a place in Maui, 155 
Kiwalao, son of Kalaniopuu, 

46 f., 104, no, 112 f., 125 ff. 
Koa, a chief, 77, 100 f. 
Koalaukane, brother of Kalani- 

kapule, 234 
Kohala, a district in Hawaii, 

16, 17, 114, 149, et passim 
Koi, a chief, 218 
Koihala, a chief of Kau, 108 
Kona, a district in Hawaii, 73, 

114, 127, et passim 
Koolau, in Maui, 42, 119 
Kotzebue, explorer, 304 



Ku-kaili-mokit, Kamehameha's 
war-god, 35, 112 f., 191, 207, 
211, 247, 310 

Kuahailo, a god, 309 

Kualii, Chant of, 28, 164 

Kualoa, in Oahu, 119 

Kukaniloku, an ancient sanctu- 
ary, 271 

Kukuipahu, a place in Hawaii, 
71 f. 

Kuluiau, the rain goddess, 212 

Kuoho, a priest, 67 

La Perouse, explorer, 162 
Laamaomao, the wind god, 212 
Lady Washington, The, 233, 

236 f. 
Lahaina, a town in Maui, 25, 

29, 49, 54, 274 f . 
Lamport, Capt. Brown's mate, 

237 

Lanai, one of the Eight Is- 
lands, II, 168, et passim 

Lark, The, 302 

Launuipoko, a place in Maui, 
241 

Laupahoehoe, a place in 
Hawaii, 144 

Laupahoehoehope, War of, 149 

Iyeahi, or Diamond Head, 246, 
281 

Lehua, a small island in the 
group, 66 

Lelemahoalani, a Kauai chief- 
ess, 60 — 

Lelia Byrd, The, 279 

Liholiho, Kamehameha II, 272, 

294» 309, 317 
L,ikelike, Princess, 316 
Liliha, mother of Keopuolani, 

176 
Liloa, a chief of olden time, II, 

35, 48, in, 314,. ' 

Lono, one of the chief gods, n, 

20, 58, 60, 66, 79 L, 206, 213 

Maai^aea Bay, in Maui, 42 
Mahihelelima, a chief, 31 
Mai Okuu, a disease, possibly 
cholera, 280 



INDEX 



325 



Maikikini, a temple in Hawaii, 

182 
Makaiouli, an Oahu hero, 123 
Makawao, a place in Maui, 42 
Makena, a place in Maui, 42 f . 
Malae, a place in Oahu, 122 
Malo, David, historian, 55, 66 
"Mamalahoe." Law of the 

Splintered Paddle, 146, 270 
Manona, wife of Kekuokalani, 

39. 
Maui, one of the Eight Islands, 

16, et passim 
Maulili, a place in Maui, 156 
Mauna Kea, volcano in Hawaii, 

38, 51, 71 
Mauna L,oa, volcano in Hawaii, 

72 
McClay, George, carpenter, 279 
Meares, Capt, 104, 163 
Metcalf, Capt, 166 f. 
Millwood, The, 301 
Milu, an ancient chief, god of 

the dead, 44, in 
Miomio, a chief, 304 
Mokuohai, Battle of, 139 
Molokai, one of the Eight 

Islands, 24, et passim 
Moo, a soldier, 144 
Mookini, an heiau, 75 
Murray, "the Armourer/' 199, 

201, 231 
Myrtle, The, 302 

Nabows, foster-father of Kame- 

hameha, 18, 20, 45 
Nahaolelua, the two white 

men, 170 
Namahana, mother of Kaahti- 

manu, 29, 52, 243 
Namakeha, brother of Kaiana, 

166, 254 f • 
Neilson, Mr., 295 
Niihau, one of the islands, 57, 

et passim 
Niulii, a place in Hawaii, 115 
Nootka, The, 163 
Nootka Sound, 159, 216 
Nuuanu Valley, in Oahu, 244 f ., 

316 



Nuuanupaahu, a chief, 109 

Oahu, one of the Eight Is- 
lands, passim 

Olupue, an idol, 179 

Oluwalu, a place in Hawaii, 
170, 177 

Paakai,ani, an heiau, 76, 112, 

200 
Paao, a priest of the olden 

time, 81, 259 
Paauhau, a place in Hawaii, 

184 
Pahua, a hero of Oahu, 123 
Pakini, an heiau, 112 
Palea, a chief, 74, 77, 85, 94, 96 
Pali, The, in Oahu, 245 f . 
Papa, female progenitor of the 

Hawaiians, 197 
Paumakua, a priest of ancient 

times, 36 
Pearl Harbour, 233 f . 
Pele, the volcano goddess, 21, 

42, 186 f., 272 
Peleioholani, a king of Kauai, 

25, 36 
Phillips, Mr., 95, 98 
Piggott, Capt, 305 
Pili,an ancestor of Kalanioouu, 

28 
Pinau, an Oahu hero, 123 
Pine, wife of Kekuhaupio, 135 
Pomare I, of Tahiti, 308 
Portlock, Capt., 161 
Prince Lee Boo, The, 233 
Prince of Wales, The, 163 
Princess Royal, The, 163 
Providence, The, 251 
Puakea, an Oahu hero, 123 
Puna, a district in Hawaii, 21, 

109, 114, 145, 254, 270 
Punchbowl, The, 302 
Pupuka, an Oahu hero, 123 
Puukohae, a fortified hill, 172 
Puukohola, an heiau, 182, 190 f. 
Puuloa, a place in Oahu, 122 

Queen Charlotte, The, 104, 161 



326 



INDEX 



Resolution, The, 56 f. 

Rurick, The, 303 

Russia, Complications with, 

306 f. 
Ruth, Princess, 188 

Saavedra, Aevaro de, Spanish 

explorer, 55 
Sandalwood, Trade in, 289 f. 
Sandhills, Battle of the, 40 fr\, 

154 
Sandwich Islands, named from 

the Earl of, 65 
Scheffer, Dr., 301 ff. 
Shales, Mr., 279 
Spence, Capt, 283 

Tahiti (Otaheite), 72, 308 

Ukanipo, the shark god, 212 
Ulukou, a place in Oahu, 229 
Umi, a hero of ancient times, 

48, 314 . H 

Upolu, a place in Samoa, 259 

Vancouver, Capt. George, ii, 
19, 105, 157, 214-227 



Waahia, a poet of ancient 

times, 58 
Waialae Bay, in Oahu, 161 
Waialua, in Oahu, 123 
Waianae, in Oahu, 121, 232 
Waikapu, a place in Maui, 43, 

45 . . 
Waikiki, a place in Oahu, 

122 f., 222 
Wailua, in Maui, 70 
Wailuku, a town in Maui, 29, 

42, 58, 174, 276 
Waimanu, a place in Hawaii, 

201 
Waimea, a place in Kauai, 60, 

61, 66, 163 
Waimea, in Hawaii, 183 
Waipa, a sailor, 296 
Waipio, a place in Hawaii, 

nof., 183, 200 
Watman, William, a sailor, 88 
" William Pitt," alias of Kala- 

nimoku, 265 
Windship, Capt. Jonathan, 

286L, 296 

Young, John, 14, 156, 169 f., 
175, 191, 201, 219, 240, 247, 
264, 277, 293 



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